[rmnunez]

The US must invest in Mexican development and ease immigration:

To consolidate North American integration, the region's leaders must reverse the growing development gap between Canada and the US on the one hand, and Mexico on the other, according to a “Chairmen's Statement” by the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations. Mexico's Fox has been particularly disappointed by Bush's lack of interest. Fox had been hoping for a major breakthrough on immigration that would have made it easier for Mexicans to enter the US and to remain there to work when the 9/11 attacks took place, but since then immigration reform has been put on the back burner, while the political climate inside the US has generally become more hostile to immigration. Indeed, Bush's failure to deliver substantial immigration reform is often cited as one of the major causes for the steady decline in the public standing of Fox and his PAN party. Many analysts here now believe that the 2006 presidential elections will be won by the PRD, Mexico's most left-wing mainstream party and one that has been most sceptical about the benefits of NAFTA and North American integration. ”AS A MATTER OF THEIR OWN NATIONAL INTERESTS (emphasis in original), all three countries should do more to encourage broad-based economic development in Mexico.” In addition to the importance of Mexico implementing publicly supported policies that will attract investment, the US and Canada should establish a North American Investment Fund to create infrastructure that links the poorer parts of the Mexico to the markets in the north and support education and technical training for Mexican states and municipalities, the report urges. Other steps to promote further integration include adopting a common external tariff on a sector-by-sector basis at the lowest rate consistent with international trade obligations, according to the report, which stresses that ”unwieldy rules of origin” and regulatory differences among the three countries are raising the costs of trade rather than reducing them. On the immigration front, the chairs called for creation of a border pass with biometric indicators that would expedite passage through customs and immigration throughout the region and the adoption of a unified Border Action Plan to boost regional security. Such a plan would mean harmonising visa and asylum regulations, joint inspection of container traffic entering North American ports; syncronised screening and tracking of people, goods, and vessels, the establishment of a trinational threat intelligence centre and joint training for law-enforcement officials, and closer military cooperation. http://ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=27862

I agree with the CFR's chairmen. All the issues I've identified and we've discussed right here (investment for Mexico's development, immigration, US security concerns and trade restrictions) are addressed.