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Today in Washington, D.C., cabinet secretaries from the United States and Mexico will attend the 22nd U.S.-Mexico Binational Commission (BCN) meeting. This important meeting is a unique opportunity to bring together high-level officials from our two countries to focus attention on the full range of issues affecting us. Held since 1981, the BNC not only is a strong example of the importance that the United States and Mexico both attach to our broad and integrated partnership, it is also a timely prelude to the meeting next week in Cancun between President Bush, President Fox and Prime Minister Harper of Canada.
In the two and a half decades since the first BNC meeting was held, we have seen a sea change of attitudes in both countries about the US-Mexico relationship. Our ever-growing partnership allows us to face many of our mutual challenges with closer cooperation, more honest dialogue, and increasing coordination amongst our governmental agencies. And our two cultures have become increasingly intertwined with the migration of Mexican workers to the north and the now-constant exchange of art, music, and television programming between the people of our two countries.
This year, the BNC includes 12 working groups of senior U.S. and Mexican officials. These working groups will offer our government officials an open setting to discuss such topics as security and law enforcement cooperation, citizen safety, scientific and environmental cooperation, cultural and educational partnerships and exchanges, and methods of making legitimate travel and commerce easier between our countries.
Violence along our shared border, of course, will be a focus of this year’s BNC. Already, on March 3, Secretary for Homeland Security Michael Chertoff and his Mexican counterpart, Interior Secretary Carlos Abascal, met in Brownsville, Texas and signed a groundbreaking Action Plan to allow law enforcement authorities from both countries to respond jointly to cross-border criminal activities in real time as they actually occur.
Faster information sharing between law enforcement officials, access to high-technology security systems, and an agreement from the United States to expand the training assistance we offer to our Mexican counterparts are just some of the tools we will use to coordinate our attack on the narco-violence plaguing communities on both sides of the border.
Strengthening our two countries’ economies will also be a priority at this year’s BNC. Over the past eleven years since NAFTA was signed, U.S. businesses have invested nearly $100 billion in Mexico’s economy, creating employment and making goods more affordable for both Americans and Mexicans. Additionally, in 2006, Mexican workers in the United States sent almost $20 billion to their families and communities in Mexico, allowing those communities to build stronger infrastructures, better schools, and safer environments for their citizens.
To ensure the secure and efficient flow of travelers and goods across our border, we have opened two additional SENTRI lanes this year in El Paso/Juarez and Calexico/Mexicali, and both countries have granted the necessary permission to build a FAST lane for commercial traffic in Nogales, Arizona. A public-private partnership, to be discussed at this year’s BNC, will push the FAST lane project forward and fund the effort.
The BNC will also underscore the importance of regular meetings between the U.S. and Mexican consulates along the border. Known as the Border Liaison Mechanisms, these meetings allow government officials to propose solutions to transportation, environment, and law enforcement problems, with the goal of making life better in our border communities.
Cooperation on our “Methane to Markets” presidential initiative will result in a cleaner environment through the capture and use of methane gas. We will also finalize agreements on civil aviation matters, American and Mexican university partnerships, and Mexican-American cultural and art exchanges. Additionally, we will discuss methods of helping to reduce the cost of sending remittances from Mexicans living in the United States to their families in Mexico and methods of increasing the use of those funds for productive activities, especially micro-enterprise development in Mexican communities.
When it was first held by Presidents Reagan and Lopez Portillo 25 years ago, the BNC was considered a revolutionary development in the U.S.-Mexico relationship. Not so today. Regular meetings between the American and Mexican political leadership are now expected and nearly routine—in fact, these almost daily bilateral meetings are so routine that we often do not hear about them in the news.
Nonetheless, important bilateral meetings like the BNC offer us opportunities to work together to improve the lives of our citizens. This year’s BNC is another strong signal that the U.S. and Mexico continue to deepen our economic integration, strengthen the security of our citizens, and provide a model of opportunity in our hemisphere and the world.
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