Mexico's importance and multiple relationships with the United States.

January 18, 2006

Summary

This report provides information on the importance of Mexico to U.S. interests and catalogues the many ways Mexico and the United States interact. The report is a snapshot of the bilateral relationship at the beginning of 2006. It will not be updated on a regular basis.

Sharing a 2,000-mile border and extensive interconnections through the Gulf of Mexico, the United States and Mexico are so intricately linked together in an enormous multiplicity of ways that President George W. Bush and other U.S. officials have stated that no country is more important to the United States than Mexico. At the same time, Mexican President Vicente Fox (2000-2006), the first president to be elected from an opposition party in 71 years, has sought to strengthen the relationship with the United States through what some have called a "grand bargain." Under this proposed bargain, the United States would regularize the status of undocumented Mexican workers in the United States and economically assist the less developed partner in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), while Mexico would be more cooperative in efforts to control the illegal traffic of drugs, people, and goods into the United States.

The southern neighbor is linked with the United States through trade and investment, migration and tourism, environment and health concerns, and family and cultural relationships. It is the second most important trading partner of the United States, and this trade is critical to many U.S. industries and border communities. It is a major source of undocumented migrants and illicit drugs and a possible avenue for the entry of terrorists into the United States. As a result, cooperation with Mexico is essential to deal effectively with migration, drug trafficking, and border, terrorism, health, environment, and energy issues.

The United States and Mexico have developed a wide variety of mechanisms for consultation and cooperation on the range of issues in which the countries interact. These include (1) periodical presidential meetings; (2) annual cabinet-level Binational Commission meetings with 10 Working Groups on major issues; (3) annual meetings of congressional delegations in the Mexico-United States Interparliamentary Group Conferences; (4) NAFTA-related trilateral trade meetings under various groups; (5) regular meetings of the Attorneys General and the Senior Law Enforcement Plenary to deal with law enforcement and counter-narcotics matters; (6) a wide variety of bilateral border area cooperation meetings dealing with environment, health, transportation, and border crossing issues; and (7) trilateral meetings under the "Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) of North America" launched in Waco, Texas, in March 2005.

 
Contents 
 
Importance of Mexico 
  Diplomatic Weight of Mexico 
  Linkages with the United States 
  Mexico's Role in NAFTA 
  Mexico's Role in Latin America and the Caribbean 
  Mexico's Linkages to Europe, Asia and the World 
  Mexico as Host to Regional and International Meetings 
 
Mechanisms for Mexico-United States Interactions 
  Periodic Presidential Meetings 
  Annual Cabinet-Level Binational Commission Meetings 
  Annual Mexico-United States Interparliamentary Conferences 
  NAFTA-Related Trilateral Trade Organizations 
    NAFTA Commissions, Secretariat, and Working Groups 
    Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) 
    Commission for Labor Cooperation (CLC) 
    North American Energy Working Group (NAEWG) 
  U.S.-Mexico Senior Law Enforcement Plenary (SLEP) and Regular 
    Meetings of Attorneys General 
  Border Area Cooperation Organizations and Meetings 
    International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) 
    Border Environment Cooperation Commission (BECC) 
    North American Development Bank (NADBank) 
    United States-Mexico Border Health Commission (USMBHC) 
    U.S.-Mexico Border Environmental Program--Border 2012 
    Mexico-U.S. Border Partnership 
    Border Liaison Mechanisms (BLMs) 
    Binational Group on Bridges and Border Crossings 
    Border States Conferences 
    Gulf of Mexico States Accord 
  Trilateral Meetings under the "Security and Prosperity Partnership 
    (SPP) of North America" 

This report provides information on the importance of Mexico to United States interests, and catalogues the many ways that Mexico and the United States interact. The report is a snapshot of the bilateral relationship at the beginning of 2006 and it will not be updated on a regular basis.

Importance of Mexico

Diplomatic Weight of Mexico

With a population of 105 million people, Mexico is the most populous Spanish-speaking country in the world, and the third most populous country in the Western Hemisphere (after the United States and Brazil). This gives it a diplomatic weight in the hemisphere as a leader of Latin American countries, and in the world as a leader of developing countries. With an estimated Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for 2005 of $660 billion, and estimated worldwide turnover trade (exports and imports) for 2005 of $455 billion, Mexico is an active member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and a leading trader in the world, principally through its partnership with Canada and the United States in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). (1)

Linkages with the United States

Sharing a 2,000-mile border and extensive interconnections through the Gulf of Mexico, the United States and Mexico are so intricately linked together in an enormous number of ways that President George W. Bush and other U.S. officials have stated that no country is more important to the United States than Mexico. At the same time, Mexican President Vicente Fox (2000-2006), the first president to be elected from an opposition party in 71 years, has sought to strengthen the bilateral relationship through what some have called a "grand bargain." (2) Under this proposed bargain, the United States would regularize the status of undocumented Mexican workers in the United States and economically assist the less developed partner in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) while Mexico would be more cooperative in border security and in controlling the illegal traffic of drugs, people, and goods into the United States.

Mexico is linked with the United States through trade and investment, migration and tourism, environment and health concerns, and family and cultural relationships. Mexico is the second most important trading partner of the United States, and this trade is critical to many U.S. industries and border communities. Mexican descendants constitute 64% (or 24 million) of the growing Hispanic population of 37.4 million people in the United States, with a significant presence in California and Texas and other states. Moreover, Mexico is the largest source of legal migrants to the United States (21% of the total in 2002) and by far the largest source of undocumented migrants (57% of the total in 2004, according to estimates). It …