Council of the Americas Holds Border Conference on the U.S.- Mexico Competitiveness Agenda

New York, August 8, 2013—Council of the Americas, in partnership with The University of Texas at El Paso and U.S. Representative Beto O’Rourke, held a conference yesterday at The University of Texas at El Paso campus on the U.S.-Mexico competitiveness agenda, attracting more than 400 attendees.

"The conference was a huge success in terms of the response and the number of registrants, but it was also very thought-provoking, exactly what we would have hoped for with lots of dialogue," said UTEP President Diana Natalicio. "This was a great opportunity to bring together a lot of very important decision-makers who can take what they have learned here — and that's probably true for all of us in some sense — to begin to think of new ways of ensuring that the investments that we have all made will be leveraged in very positive ways and yield great returns."

Public-sector speakers included Eduardo Medina Mora, Ambassador of Mexico to the United States; E. Anthony Wayne, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico; Beto O’Rourke, U.S. Representative; Javier Treviño, member of the Mexican Federal Congress; John Negroponte, chairman of the Americas Society/Council of the Americas and former U.S. ambassador to Mexico; and John Steen, Texas Secretary of State.

Natalicio welcomed the day's special guests and delivered an opening address, stressing the importance of binational collaboration not only for politics and business, but also for education and improving quality of life overall. She was followed by Negroponte, who served as U.S. ambassador to Mexico from 1989 to 1993 and participated in the establishment of NAFTA.

"There are many exciting opportunities in the U.S.-Mexico relationship," Negroponte said while presenting an overview of border trade efforts during the past two decades. "More than a billion dollars in trade crosses this border daily. It is the windpipe of our economy and when managed intelligently, it can be a massive asset to competitiveness to both our countries."

O’Rourke's speech focused on the national image of the border as "a threat rather than the opportunity that we know it to be," he said. "But it is the epicenter of U.S.-Mexico issues, the most critical place to be when you are talking about binational relations, trade, immigration, border security, and the solutions to the problems that we have seen plague the border in our countries for decades."

The first panel, “Advancing the U.S.-Mexico Economic Relationship,” was a discussion between ambassadors Medina Mora and Wayne, moderated by Negroponte. "There's no relationship more important than our relationship with Mexico," said Wayne, who was appointed by President Barack Obama in 2011. "This relationship in North America has been a success story, and there's a lot more success in front of us."

The “Reform Agendas in Mexico and the United States: Views from the Legislative Branches” panel followed, with O’Rourke and Treviño in conversation with El Paso County Judge Veronica Escobar. "We have to get Mexico moving again," said Treviño, who discussed how domestic policy on both sides of the border needs to reflect the reality of trade.

Rolando Pablos, CEO of Borderplex Alliance, moderated the next panel, “Stimulating U.S.-Mexico Competitiveness through Infrastructure Investment and Public/Private Partnerships.” Panelists were Bernardo Ayala, vice president of Mexico markets for Union Pacific; Gerónimo Gutiérrez, managing director of North American Development Bank; and Enrique Norten, principal of TEN Arquitectos. The discussion centered on how essentials like water, energy, communication, transportation, health care, and schools are necessary to close infrastructure gaps along the border.

A conversation on the “Trade Relationship: 20 Years after NAFTA” was the day’s final panel engaging Eric Farnsworth, vice president of the Americas Society/Council of the Americas; Amgad Shehata, vice president for international public affairs for UPS; and Francisco Uranga, corporate vice president and chief business operations officer for Latin America for Foxconn, in an urgent discussion about freeing up business that crosses the border. Farnsworth underlined the broad importance these issues have on a global scale. "We need to understand the border is not just an issue for border communities," he said. Thomas Fullerton, Ph.D., chair for the Study of Trade in the Americas and UTEP professor of economics, moderated.

This was the fourth event held by the Council of the Americas border initiative, which aims to foster a public-private dialogue on deepening economic integration within North America and on improving management of our common borders. Previous events were hosted in Laredo, Texas; La Jolla, California; and Washington D.C.