Joint Vision to Evolve Step by Step, Fox Says

On the eve of his summit with President Bush, Mexican President Vicente Fox on Tuesday said the two leaders will advance their new vision for improved U.S.-Mexican relations by taking “one, two, three steps forward” on the divisive issues of migration, trade and drug trafficking.

In an interview at Los Pinos, the Mexican presidential residence, Fox said he and Bush had framed their overall objectives for a new relationship at their first meeting, held at Fox’s ranch in February soon after both presidents took office. Now it is time to tend to details, he said.

“We launched the long-term vision, a vision of ‘NAFTA-plus’ and more integration, a vision of connecting us through infrastructure of highways, bridges, airports, border crossings,” Fox said. “And there was a vision of a great fund or resources for development. We spoke of having a border in the long term, in 20 years, like the one between the U.S. and Canada.

“Now what I am talking about is that we go on building, step by step, on specific issues such as migration, security, drugs, commerce and investment. Within this framework, I am speaking of these small steps that we are achieving. So we go now from the big vision to the concrete.”

As he spoke, Mexican and U.S. Cabinet members were debating dozens of specific issues at meetings in Washington. Those sessions tackled still-unresolved disputes, such as rules governing the entry of Mexican trucks into the United States, and put the final touches on accords to be initialed by the presidents when they meet today and Thursday.

The sessions reflected the “rich and growing agenda” between the two neighbors, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said Tuesday at a joint news conference in Washington with Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castaneda.

Discussions included regional issues, water and energy, border crossings and customs, food safety, housing, law enforcement and even international issues such as the troubled U.N. conference on racism being held in South Africa, said a senior State Department official who requested anonymity.

“They discussed everything from beans and tomatoes to bilingual education,” the official added. “It was a day of doing real things for real people.”

The U.S. and Mexico also announced Tuesday that they will use confiscated assets from narcotics trafficking and other criminal activity to help build up Mexico’s law enforcement community.

In recent days, both U.S. and Mexican officials have sought to downplay expectations for major breakthroughs during Fox’s three-day U.S. visit, instead focusing attention on incremental steps toward solving large issues.

For example, Fox said Tuesday that he expects progress on revamping a border development bank that was created under the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, and that so far has been restricted to funding ecological projects along the border. Fox said both governments agree that the bank has been ineffective and that its mandate should be broadened.

But in one example of how expectations have narrowed as the governments move from big ideas to tangible solutions, Fox acknowledged that his initial goal for the bank was unacceptable to U.S. officials.

He had proposed that the North American Development Bank, known as NADBank, be used for a far more ambitious program of economic development in the states of central Mexico most prone to migration--to encourage more Mexicans to stay in their homeland. In the face of U.S. opposition to such a large bilateral fund, he said NADBank would be expanded more modestly and remain focused on border projects.

“When I say that in this visit to the United States we seek to move one, two, three steps forward on each subject, in the case of development financing we are advancing on NADBank,” he said. “In the meantime, we will be proposing other alternatives that will expand the possibilities of financing development in the interior of Mexico.”

Similarly, on the key issue of U.S.-Mexican negotiations on immigration, Fox said he expects substantive advances if no firm agreement. Asked about perceptions that the lack of detailed agreements would signal a failure for the summit, Fox answered:

“It was never our goal, we never proposed that these issues would be resolved by the September visit. In fact, we have not put a time frame on this. We know that President Bush has four years of government ahead of him and President Fox has six years ahead, and we have time to deepen [the discussions] and reach good agreements.”

His caution was echoed by Bush, who acknowledged Tuesday that immigration reform will take longer to effect than he would have liked--and that he told Fox as much. “Immigration reform is a very complex subject,” Bush told reporters. “This is going to take a while to bring all the different interests to the table.”

Castaneda, the foreign minister, has said repeatedly since spring that Mexico hopes for an agreement on broad principles by the summit and then a detailed agreement by the end of the year.

It remains unclear, however, how far Bush and Fox will go this week in stating publicly the extent of agreement on the key immigration issues. Those include regularizing the residence status of some of the 3 million to 4 million Mexicans living and working illegally in the U.S. and greatly expanding a temporary guest worker program for low-skilled and agricultural jobs.

In addition to progress on the major issues, Fox said the major goal for the week “is to establish a basic philosophy of trust” in managing the complex issues between the two countries.

“There is mistrust on the part of many Mexican citizens toward the all-powerful [nation] to the north, and there is distrust of the U.S. toward previous Mexican governments, toward the law in Mexico. And therefore, to be effective, we need to establish a basis of mutual trust.”

Fox noted that at the same time Mexico is looking to the U.S. for support on immigration and development, his nation is developing initiatives for its own poor south and from there all the way to Panama.

That effort, known as the Plan Puebla-Panama, is meant to create economic opportunities throughout Central America that would help keep potential migrants home. He said a huge proposed public works fund for the plan of up to $5 billion could be announced in October.

“Mexico is doing its part working on migration, working to generate opportunities to reduce migration,” Fox said.

The fund will work to integrate Mexico and Central America by financing roads, ports, power lines and airports. It could include contributions from a number of multinational lenders.

On trade, Fox said he will press U.S. officials to increase the quota of sugar exports by half a million tons to more than 600,000 tons, a level Mexico argues is permitted under NAFTA. Disputes involving tuna and trucking also are high on the agenda.

Mexico’s sugar industry has been devastated by problems that include U.S. competition, which Mexico believes can be offset by increasing its own sugar exports. On Monday, the government nationalized 27 bankrupted sugar mills, representing about half the nation’s production, because of the crisis.

“We are always going to have problems,” Fox said. “We will talk about them.”

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Times staff writers Robin Wright and Edwin Chen in Washington contributed to this report.