Fox’s California Visit a Sign of Improved Ties

Having assuaged the rancor of the Pete Wilson era, Mexico and California are poised to move beyond good vibes and look for practical payoffs from their renewed friendship.

Mexican President Vicente Fox’s choice of California as his first U.S. destination since taking office in December is itself a sign of the improved relationship.

But beyond such symbolism, the agenda for Fox’s two-day visit, which begins today in Sacramento, is crowded with Cabinet-level working meetings designed to tackle long-simmering disputes and craft agreements on education exchanges, high-tech projects and cross-border environmental issues.

With commerce already surging as Mexico cements its position as California’s No. 1 foreign trading partner, both sides also are looking for fresh investment opportunities.

“This is a working meeting. This is not a symbolic, touchy-feely-type meeting,” said Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castaneda. “It is a very exhausting, intensive, substantive agenda.”

Castaneda said the improved relationship between his nation and California during Gov. Gray Davis’ administration has produced tangible results in the form of Mexico’s sale of 50 megawatts of power from Baja California to the San Diego area--an amount expected to increase to 100 megawatts by May and 200 megawatts by the end of the year, enough to serve 200,000 homes.

“This is something we can do because it’s not a political problem in Mexico since there is a much more forthcoming attitude in California than there was a few years ago,” Castaneda said. “When you had a Gov. Wilson and Proposition 187, it would probably have been a little more difficult.”

Fox’s visit, starting with an address to a joint session of the Legislature today in Sacramento and moving on to San Jose, Fresno, Santa Ana and Los Angeles, ranges from high tech to Hollywood to migrant workers.

Davis said Monday that the trip underscores the state’s improved relationship with Mexico. “Attitudes between our two peoples have improved markedly,” he said. “We are partners, not adversaries, in an effort to combat common problems.”

In Silicon Valley tonight, Fox is to dine with 20 chief executives after touring Flextronics and Cisco Systems plants. Flextronics has built an immense plant in Guadalajara, home of Mexico’s “Silicon Valley South.”

And Davis surely will herald the University of California’s decision to extend Internet access to its libraries to Mexican universities. Fox has built his hopes for sustained economic growth on his nation’s emerging technology sector, including Internet-based education programs.

Davis said Fox’s decision to visit California first rather than Texas or Washington should not be seen as a slight to President Bush, who visited Mexico last month for his first foreign trip.

But Davis added: “Only one trip can be first. I’m honored that he has chosen California.”

The governor noted that Mexico has become the state’s biggest export market--with exports up 43% since 1999--and that California has the largest population of Mexican immigrants of any state.

To be sure, difficult disputes persist, and some are to be tackled in meetings between aides while the governors put on their display of warmth.

Davis offered little indication that he might change his mind and sign legislation that would permit illegal immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses. He vetoed such legislation last year.

“The driver’s license is the gateway document,” Davis said, adding that granting licenses to nonresidents could lead to fraud.

Davis also said he will continue to oppose granting illegal immigrants admission to state universities. Such a step could force the state to drop the tuition price break it grants to California residents, he said.

Castaneda said Mexico wants to address the issue of obtaining in-state tuition rates for Mexicans, documented or not.

“We know it is a touchy issue in California, but it is touchy in Mexico too,” he said. “If students have gone through elementary school and high school and are eligible to enter the state system or the UC system with the best of Californians, then why can’t they? Why do they have to pay out-of-state tuition rates, which they can’t afford?”

Another point of tension is California’s diversion of water from the Colorado River Basin, which has left Mexican farms south of the border short of the resource. Mexico this week worked out a solution to a similar conflict by agreeing to increase its payback of a long-standing water debt to Texas, raising expectations of progress on the California dispute.

Mexican officials acknowledge that California is within its legal rights on the water issue, Castaneda said, “but it is very harmful, pernicious to Mexico. So we hope to reach movement there.”

Political attitudes in the state Capitol are far different today than during Wilson’s second term as governor.

Davis, who took office in January 1999, made warmer relations with Mexico a key part of his candidacy. He talked about the need for improved ties in his inauguration address. While many Republican lawmakers supported Proposition 187, the 1994 measure that sought to limit public services for undocumented immigrants, some in the state GOP are trying to appeal to Latinos.

“Yeah, the atmosphere is different,” said Rod Pacheco (R-Riverside), one of four Republican Latinos who have been elected to the Assembly in recent years. But he said Proposition 187, which was struck down by the courts, would pass again if it were on the ballot today “with roughly the same numbers.”

Pacheco said Fox’s visit to California is more a tribute to Bush’s efforts as governor of Texas, and now as the United States’ chief executive, to improve relations with Mexico.

Certainly, in light of the soaring cross-border trade, California has benefited from the better relationship in recent years.

State exports to Mexico grew 27.6% last year to $19 billion--a record for exports to a single country, surpassing the $18.9 billion to Japan in 1996. Davis reported last month that exports to Mexico and Canada, partners with the U.S. in the North American Free Trade Agreement, have grown 141% in the seven years since the treaty took effect. He said the growth in exports under NAFTA has created 239,000 jobs in California.

Douglas Smurr, head of the California trade office in Mexico City, noted that Mexican exports to California were $14.3 billion in 1999, “so trade between the state and its neighbor is quite balanced.” He said, however, that California’s direct investment in Mexico, at $10.7 billion in 1998, dwarfs Mexico’s $535-million investment in California that year and that his office is working hard to entice Mexican firms to expand to the state.

The difference between promoting California in Mexico today compared with a few years ago “is night and day,” Smurr said. He said that at the height of the Proposition 187 debate, his predecessor was ordered out of a taxi--suitcases and all--on the Mexican capital’s ring highway when he told the taxi driver he worked for Wilson.

“Now everybody knows that California is back,” Smurr said.

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Smith reported from Mexico City and Morain from Sacramento.