A Guide for U.S.-Mexico Ties

The Los Angeles-based Pacific Council on International Policy has issued a report on the future of Mexico that illustrates dramatic changes taking place along the United States’ southern border and points the way toward increased social and economic cooperation.

The report, “Mexico Transforming,” is aimed at Americans who have an interest in Mexico and at Mexicans who are in contact with the United States. That includes politicians setting policies that affect both countries, entrepreneurs pursuing business opportunities, American teachers working with children from remote corners of Mexico and organizations concerned with human rights.

Mexico and the United States have gone through an increasingly successful process of social, cultural and human integration over the last 150 years, but the booming economic integration of the past two decades is a new element that needs examination.

Since the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994, Mexican exports to the United States have more than doubled, softening the economic distinctions between the two countries. Mexico’s economy has transformed from a protectionist, statist one into a free-market model that welcomes foreign competition and investment. And there is change in the political realm as well. The more than seven decades of political dominance by the Institutional Revolutionary Party is now under pressure. For the first time opposition parties control the legislature. On the downside, some social problems are rising or remain unchecked--insecurity, lawlessness, poverty and corruption.

“Mexico Transforming,” produced by a 56-member binational study group, points out ways that the two countries can increase efforts to strengthen their economic and political bonds. To get a copy of the report go to www.pcip.org/pub/index.html on the Internet.