Neighborly Tensions Nag Bush

Playing host to the leaders of Canada and Mexico at his ranch Wednesday, President Bush took pains to accentuate the positive, talking up a new agreement among the three nations to improve coordination on security and economic matters.

But even Bush, a self-proclaimed optimist, could not avoid the nagging tensions that continue to hamper the relations between the U.S. and its neighbors -- tensions that loomed over the meeting.

Mexican President Vicente Fox, who was hoping for concessions on a guest worker program, stood by during a news conference at Baylor University here as Bush said that, although he still liked the idea of guest workers, “you don’t have my pledge that Congress will act.”

Moreover, there was no public mention of the U.S.-financed border fences that Fox has called discriminatory, nor a U.S. pledge to curb detentions by citizen groups of migrants who sneak across the border.

Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin was not shy about his differences with Bush over U.S. restrictions on Canadian beef and lumber tariffs. And asked whether Canada might reverse its opposition to Bush’s call for a North American missile defense system, Martin said bluntly that “the file is closed” on that subject.

White House officials had hoped to keep the day’s focus on what they called a historic accomplishment: the creation of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America. But officials revealed little about the agreement.

The U.S. had insisted that the gathering be a three-way session rather than bilateral meetings that might have allowed for confrontation over key issues.

Instead, Bush faced some of his counterparts’ concerns publicly during a 45-minute news conference. The exchange showed that even as Bush has had some success repairing a rift with Europe over his Iraq policy, unfinished business is making matters more complicated closer to home.

“Look, we’ve got differences,” Bush conceded, sounding almost exasperated after a Canadian journalist inquired about disagreements on missile defense and other topics.

“I don’t know if you’d categorize them as differences that would then prevent us from finding common ground,” Bush said. “I don’t view it that way. I understand why people disagree with certain decisions I have made, but that doesn’t prevent us from cooperating in intelligence sharing, for example.”

Bush gave Fox and Martin a quick pickup truck tour of his ranch near Crawford and held a lunch for them. But for all the talk of getting along, the summit took place at an uncomfortable time.

In January, Fox and other Mexican officials were offended by an open letter from U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza that blamed Mexico for an alleged inability to stem kidnappings and drug violence along the border.

Salt was added to the wound when the State Department issued a travel advisory warning citizens that border tourism, a lucrative business for Mexico, might not be safe in the wake of recent abductions.

Mexican officials said the criticism was unwarranted, considering their country’s sacrifices for the U.S.-led drug war made necessary by U.S. consumption of cocaine and heroin.

The guest worker issue remains contentious as well. Bush has backed legislation that would allow hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants to obtain work permits for a limited period, as long as employers assured the government that no Americans wanted the jobs. But he has failed to convince his own Republican Party’s conservative wing to go along, prompting questions about his commitment.

Fox also appears less than impressed with Bush’s choice of Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz to head the World Bank, saying last week that the next bank president should have a “heart larger than his technical ability” and a mind “dedicated to social work.”

On Wednesday, Fox was careful to offer only praise for Bush. He put a positive spin on the three-way immigration talks, focusing on how “we can protect our borders and be efficient along the border and also how we can keep people from crossing who shouldn’t be crossing and address the threats that our nations have faced.”

Bush embraced a “compassionate” approach to migration, saying the system should reward Mexicans who apply to work in the United States through legal means.

“Mr. President, you’ve got my pledge -- I’ll continue working on it,” Bush said to Fox. “You don’t have my pledge that Congress will act, because I’m not a member of the legislative branch. But you will have my pledge that I will continue to push our Congress to come up with rational, common-sense immigration policy.”

Asked about groups who have been detaining immigrants, Bush said: “I’m against vigilantes in the United States of America. I’m for enforcing law in a rational way. That’s why you got a border patrol, and they ought to be in charge of enforcing the border.”

It was clear that Fox would face questions at home about his apparent lack of progress.

Carlos Jimenez Macias, a Mexican legislator from the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party, criticized Fox for being the “silent guest” at the summit and for not lobbying harder for progress on immigration reform.

Relations between the United States and Canada have also shown wear.

Beef imports, for example, have been a sore point since 2003, when the U.S. closed its borders to Canadian beef after mad cow disease was discovered in Alberta province. Martin has failed to persuade the Bush administration to eliminate all restrictions, despite Canada’s slaughter of millions of cows and other safeguards.

Martin fired some less-than-subtle shots Wednesday, calling for approaches to beef based on “sound science that will help us avoid the risk of hidden protectionism, as some would advocate.”

Officials said the Security and Prosperity Partnership pact would move the three nations beyond the North American Free Trade Agreement, honing cooperation on port and aviation security, energy development and conservation and other issues.

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Wallsten reported from Waco and Kraul from Mexico City.