The Guadalajara Reporter

Obama hails ‘new era’ for US-Mexico ‘partnership’

Trade and commerce were pushed to the top of the agenda as Barack Obama made his fourth trip to Mexico as president of the United States on Thursday.

Prior to arriving in Mexico City for a visit lasting less than 24 hours, Obama had spoken of the start of “a new era of economic cooperation between our two countries.”

Even issues such as immigration reform were talked about in the context of trade.

“It’s important to get immigration reform done, precisely because we do so much business,” Obama said at a joint press conference with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto Thursday. “We are constantly bogged down on these border issues and debates instead of moving forward in the 21st century and making sure that legal immigration and legal trade and commerce is facilitated.”

And trade between the two nations is certainly a win-win proposition. Both sides during the visit were keen to stress that Mexico is the biggest export market for U.S. goods (after Canada), while Americans buy 80 percent of Mexico’s exports. 

Obama also paid tribute to the slew of reforms proposed by Peña Nieto in his first five months in office that are designed to transform moribund and uncompetitive sectors such as education, energy and telecommunications. 

“I have been impressed with the president’s boldness in his reform agenda,” Obama said. “He’s tackling big issues, and that’s what the times demand.”

A U.S. president is unlikely to say otherwise, Peña Nieto’s critics might say, given their frequently expressed concern that further privatizations will only benefit superpowers such as the United States.

A telling national survey published last week showed that only 21 percent believe the “Pact for Mexico” – signed by the nation’s three major political parties to fast-track the reform process – will have a financial impact on their lives.

The chief executives met one day after the Labor Day holiday (May 1) in Mexico, when unions traditionally take to the streets in large numbers to flex their muscles. 

Protestors in many major cities tried to take the gloss off Peña Nieto’s “economic transformation,” arguing that many of the reforms will impinge on workers’ rights, reduce the power of unions, cause wages to fall even further and, simply put, make Mexico’s wealthiest citizens even richer.

Peña Nieto, of course, does not see Mexico’s future in the same way.

“Our shared objective is to make North America the most competitive, dynamic and prosperous region in the world,” he tweeted midway through Obama’s visit.

Security issues were not completely relegated to the back burner during the visit. Some concerns had been raised that the new Mexican administration is keen to make radical strategic changes to the policies favored by former president Felipe Calderon. Chief among these is the amount of access to information allowed to U.S. security agencies in the fight against drug trafficking.

Obama used diplomatic language to skirt around the topic at Thursday’s press conference: “It is up to the Mexican people to determine their security structures and how it engages with other nations, including the United States.”

As usual, the visit of a U.S. president created a major security headache. More than 3,000 police officers and members of the armed forces were put on special duty for the visit. All flights taking off and landing at the Mexico City Airport were  held for an hour to facilitate the arrival of Air Force One. 

On Thursday evening, Peña Nieto hosted a state dinner for Obama at Los Pinos palace. On Friday, he was scheduled to have an audience with 800 students from public and private universities at the National Anthropology  Museum to promote his “100,000 Strong in the Americas” initiative to increase international study in Latin America.

At midday Friday, Obama was scheduled to fly to Costa Rica to attend the Central America Forum on Sustainable Economic Development.