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107TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. CON. RES. 35

Expressing the sense of Congress with respect to the upcoming trip of President George W. Bush to Mexico to meet with newly elected President

Vicente Fox, and with respect to future cooperative efforts between

the United States and Mexico.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

FEBRUARY 14, 2001

Mr. GOSS submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred

to the Committee on International Relations

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

Expressing the sense of Congress with respect to the upcoming trip of President George W. Bush to Mexico to

meet with newly elected President Vicente Fox, and with

respect to future cooperative efforts between the United

States and Mexico.

Whereas Vicente Fox Quesada of the Alliance for Change

(consisting of the National Action Party and the Mexican

Green Party) was sworn in as President of the United

Mexican States on December 1, 2000, the first opposition

candidate to be elected president in Mexico in seven decades;

Whereas the United States, as Mexico’s neighbor, ally, and

partner in the Hemisphere, has a strong interest in see-
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ing President Fox advance prosperity and democracy

during his term of office;

Whereas President George W. Bush and President Vicente

Fox have demonstrated their mutual willingness to forge

a deeper alliance between the United States and Mexico

by making President Bush’s first foreign trip as President of the United States to Mexico on February 16,

2001;

Whereas both presidents recognize that a strong, steady

Mexican economy can be the foundation to help solve

many of the challenges shared by the two countries, such

as immigration, environmental quality, organized crime,

corruption, and trafficking in illicit narcotics;

Whereas the economic cooperation spearheaded by the North

American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has established Mexico as the second largest trading partner of the

United States, with a two-way trade of $174,000,000,000

each year;

Whereas the North American Development Bank and its sister institution, the Border Environment Cooperation

Commission, were established to promote environmental

infrastructure development that meets the needs of border communities;

Whereas the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, an

independent self-sustaining United States Government

agency responsible for facilitating the investment of

United States private sector capital in emerging markets,

has recently developed a small business-financing program to support United States investment in Mexico;

Whereas under the North American Free Trade Agreement

the United States currently has an annual limit on the
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number of visas that may be issued to Mexican business

executives for entry into the United States but there is

no such limit with respect to the Canadian business executives;

Whereas United States-Mexico border tensions have continued to escalate, with the number of illegal migrant deaths

increasing 400 percent since the mid 1990s; and

Whereas the Government of Mexico, through the establishment of a special cabinet commission, has made a renewed commitment, with increased resources, to combat

drug trafficking and corruption: Now, therefore, be it

1 Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate

2 concurring), That it is the sense of Congress that the

3 President should work with the Government of Mexico to

4 advance bilateral cooperation and should, among other ini5 tiatives, seek to—

6 (1) encourage economic growth and develop7 ment to benefit both the United States and Mexico,

8 including developing a common strategy to improve

9 the flow of credit and United States investment op10 portunities in Mexico, as well as increasing funding

11 of entrepreneurial programs of all sizes, from micro12 to large-scale enterprises;

13 (2) strengthen cooperation between the United

14 States and Mexican military and law enforcement

15 entities for the purpose of addressing common

16 threats to the security of the two countries, includ-
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1 ing illegal drug trafficking, illegal immigration, and

2 money laundering;

3 (3) upon the request of President Fox—

4 (A) provide assistance to Mexico in support

5 of President Fox’s plan to reform Mexico’s en6 tire judicial system and combat inherent cor7 ruption within Mexico’s law enforcement sys8 tem; and

9 (B) provide assistance to the Government

10 of Mexico to strengthen the institutions that

11 are integral to democracy;

12 (4) develop a common strategy to address un13 documented and documented immigration between

14 the United States and Mexico through increased co15 operation, coordination, and economic development

16 programs;

17 (5) develop a common strategy for fighting the

18 illicit drug trade by reducing the demand for illicit

19 drugs through intensification of anti-drug informa20 tion and education, improvement of intelligence

21 sharing and the coordination of counterdrug activi22 ties, and increasing maritime and logistics coopera23 tion to improve the respective capacities of the two

24 countries to disrupt drug shipments by land, air,

25 and sea;
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1 (6) encourage bilateral and multilateral environ2 mental protection activities with Mexico, including

3 strengthening the North American Development

4 Bank (NADbank) so as to facilitate expansion of the

5 bank;

6 (7) obtain the support of the Government of

7 Mexico to assist the Government of Colombia in

8 achieving a peaceful political resolution to the con9 flict in Colombia; and

10 (8) review the current illicit drug certification

11 process, and should seek to be open to consideration

12 of other evaluation mechanisms that would promote

13 increased cooperation and effectiveness in combating

14 the illicit drug trade.

15 SEC. 2. The Clerk of the House of Representatives

16 shall transmit a copy of this concurrent resolution to the

17 President.

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