AL DÍA: U.S.-Mexico Goods and Services Trade Reaches Half Trillion Dollars

Mexico Institute, 5/16/12

Christopher Wilson

Perhaps it is a metaphor for the bilateral economic relationship in general. Without celebration or even much recognition, U.S.-Mexico goods and services trade probably reached the major milestone of a half trillion dollars in 2011.

This incredible volume of commerce is testament to a vast network of cross-border ties that have intimately linked the economies of the United States and Mexico, forging a natural economic alliance between the two countries. In recent years, the incredible expansion in mutually beneficial bilateral commerce has gone relatively unnoticed behind the headlines about drugs and violence, despite its very real positive impact on the lives of Americans and Mexicans alike.

Bilateral trade is made not only of finished products like cars, washing machines, tomatoes and grains, but also the parts that factories on each side of the border use to build everything from small electronics to massive airplanes. In fact, it is this trade in industrial inputs that most deeply binds the U.S. and Mexican economies as the integrated North American manufacturing sector works across national boundaries to build final products for sale on the world market.

Op-ed: Immigration and the New Old Me

New America Foundation, 5/16/12

Los Angeles

Despite my family’s rootedness in Southern California, migration has had an inordinate effect on my life. Now that it has come to a virtual halt, how do I see myself? Angeleno, as always.

The news that Mexican immigration to the United States has come to a virtual halt has me thinking about all the ways that will change things. It will affect politics, culture, labor and the nation’s racial climate. And it will also change how we see each other and ourselves as Americans and as Californians, me included.

I’m one of those mythical native Californians you might have read about. I was born near the corner of Sunset and Vermont in Hollywood. My father was born in L.A. and baptized, as was I, at La Placita Church downtown. My mom was born in northern San Diego County and baptized at the San Antonio de Pala mission there. My paternal great-grandfather arrived in the U.S. — Arizona — from Mexico in 1893. My family has been American so long that sometimes I think I should wear one of those buckled Pilgrim hats.

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U.S.-Mexico Security Cooperation

Council on Foreign Relations, 5/16/12

The Council on Foreign Relations has held a panel to discuss the current security situation in Mexico, and how the United States can help combat shared security threats.

The panel featured Alejandro Hope, Project Director, ‘Less Crime, Less Punishment’ project, Instituto Mexicano para la Competividad (IMCO) and México Evalúa; Shannon K. O’Neil, Douglas Dillon Fellow for Latin America Studies, Council on Foreign Relations; Ginger Thompson, Domestic Correspondent, New York Times; and the Woodrow Wilson Center’s own Eric L. Olson, Senior Associate of the Mexico Institute.

Video of the panel may be viewed here, at the Council of Foreign Relations.

NAFTA key to economic, social growth in Mexico

The Washington Times, 5/14/12

The North American Free Trade Agreement, which went into effect in 1994, has been the key driver of Mexico’s economic and social transformation of the past 20 years, analysts say. NAFTA at first brought an explosion of low-skill-labor factories to the Mexican side of the U.S. border. By the mid-2000s, the trade pact had triggered an increasingly sophisticated manufacturing base that now reaches across Mexico’s 31 states.

“What we’re seeing now is a growth of industry in Mexico that requires more engineers,” said Christopher Wilson, an associate with the Mexico Institute at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. “To put a name on it, specifically, we’re talking about automobiles and aerospace,” Mr. Wilson said. “Mexico is now graduating more engineers than Germany every year.”

A 40 percent jump in Mexico’s per capita gross domestic product since the inception of NAFTA has brought with it an increasingly robust middle class. “What that means is Mexicans are becoming more educated, and there is more investment in children, which is why you are able to see the development of an aerospace sector,” Mr. Wilson said.

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Chihuahua City is big dog in Mexico aerospace

The Washington Times, 5/14/12

When a jumbo jetliner touches down almost anywhere in the world, the last thing on the pilot’s mind is that the plane’s brakes likely were made in the capital of one of the most crime-riddled states in Mexico. Behind the headlines of warring drug gangs and a soaring murder rate in Mexico, a fast-growing high-tech economy centered on the aerospace industry has sprung up in recent years.

In Chihuahua City alone, 36 aerospace plants have opened since 2007 as a growing number of international parts makers use the city as a base for tapping a massive airplane-production market in the United States. “Our first objective was to get into the U.S. market and get a deal with U.S. customers,” said Nicolas Maillard, director of the French-owned Manoir Aerospace plant in Chihuahua City, 235 miles south of El Paso, Texas.

Shiny, precision-shaped steel discs produced by the plant are shipped to companies in Ohio and Kentucky, where they are added into the assembly line for brake systems on the Boeing Co.’s commercial airplanes. With the average cost of manufacturing labor running about $6 per hour in the city, a new era of high-tech growth is taking root. “The real advantage is the cost of labor,” Mr. Maillard said. “In France, labor would account for about 30 percent of the cost of production on an item like this. Here, it’s roughly 10 percent, and we’re closer to the market we’re trying to reach.”

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Most Mexicans want U.S. to take a bigger role in fighting violence, poll finds

The Dallas Morning News, 5/13/12

Weary of the drug-stoked violence that has swept their country and buffeted the Texas border, more than half of Mexicans want the U.S. to take a more direct role here in battling organized crime. Some even support deployment of U.S. troops and drug agents into Mexico, where more than 50,000 people have died in drug violence since 2006.

Those are the main findings to emerge from a new poll of Mexicans, who appear poised to again embrace the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which they turned out of office 12 years ago after more than seven decades in power. The poll, conducted for The Dallas Morning News, its Spanish-language publication Al Día and the Mexican newspaper El Universal, found voters were not only ready to reverse course politically but also to ease up on old suspicions of their northern neighbor.

“That’s a little shocking given the history between the United States and Mexico,” said Eric Olson, a security expert at the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute. “But the political reality is none of the politicians, particularly presidential candidates, will stand up and ask for more U.S. involvement. “

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Gunmen attack newspaper building in Nuevo Laredo

Dallas Morning News, 5/12/12

El Mañana newspaper, long forced by threats to self-censor coverage of organized crime, was attacked late Friday night by gunmen in downtown Nuevo Laredo, the latest news organization targeted by criminal groups seeking to control or intimidate the media.

Gunmen sprayed the building with high-caliber ammunition and tossed a homemade grenade at the building as the news staff worked on deadline to finish the next morning’s edition. No injuries were reported, said Ramón Cantú Deándar, El Mañana’s co-owner, who added that the staff was able to finish the edition and on Saturday morning returned to work.

“I’m honored to work alongside brave men and women who are an example of how we won’t allow ourselves to be intimidated,” he said. “We believe in our noble profession of serving our community and in following a tradition started by my grandfather 80 years ago. This isn’t the first time we’re attacked, and I’m sure it won’t be the last. But I am sure we will prevail.”

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Commentary by Andrew Selee, Director of the Mexico Institute:

Selee

Over the weekend, the offices of the legendary newspaper El Mañana in Nuevo Laredo were attacked.  This is not the first time.  The newspaper has already been the subject of several prior attacks by organized crime groups who have tried to silence El Mañana and to keep its journalists and editors from publishing what is happening in the city.  El Mañana stands as a beacon of freedom of expression in a place where few newspapers or other media sources dare to publish the truth.  We can only hope that the authorities will find those responsible and that they will be able to protect El Mañana from further attacks in an increasingly dangerous environment.

 

Border Patrol Changes its National Strategy [In Spanish]

Univision, 5/10/2012

Felicidad Aveleyra of Univision explains why the Border Patrol decided to change its national strategy for the first time in eight years and how this will impact deportation processes.

Christopher Wilson of the Mexico Institute was interviewed in this video piece.

View video reportage here.

U.S. aid in fight against drug trafficking makes strides [In Spanish]

Reforma, 5/9/2012

The Subcommittee of International Expenses of the Lower Chamber of the United States approved giving Mexico at least 282 million dollars in anti-narcotics assistance, as part of their budget packet for fiscal year 2013.

Although the vote on the 2013 budget of the State Department was emitted in unanimity, the Subcommittee did not make public the specific aid amount for Mexico. Subcommittee President, Kay Granger, assured that they will keep the same level that was approved for Mexico in 2012.

“This legislative proposal continues supporting Mexico, our neighbor. The security of Mexico has a direct impact upon our national security,” said Granger.

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Medical Tourists Can Speed Through U.S.-Mexico Border Crossing

Fronteras, 5/3/12

The Mexican border town of Mexicali is making a push for more tourists from the American Southwest to visit that city’s dentists, surgeons and doctors. Starting April 30, medical tourists from the U.S. with the right documents will be able to skip much of the wait on the Mexican side of the border by using a new designated medical tourism lane.

Mexicali’s tourism director, Omar Dipp, says the new lane is one part of the city’s plan to boost medical tourism by 50 percent. “So you can drive to Mexicali, take care of your health, and you can only do 20 minutes to cross the border instead of two hours,” Dipp said.

Foreign patients will be able to request a pass from Mexican doctors who are participating in the program. That pass, plus a doctor’s receipt and foreign license plates, will allow patients access to the special lane. Once in the lane, vehicles are supposed to be able to bypass the traffic on the Mexican side of the border crossing, and cut to nearly the front of the line.

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