Voices of Mexico no. 65

Our Voice

In the last three years, relations between Mexico and the United States have been rocky, full of missteps and unfulfilled goals. Even though both countries’ strategic affairs are considered shared problems, no agreements have been reached about solutions: while for one of the actors some measures are urgent and necessary, the other thinks they are secondary and can be put off. This is the negation not only these measures but also of the main strategic priorities that two neighbors should maintain on their agendas.

It should be mentioned that the strategic proposal about relations with the United States initially made by President Vicente Fox’s administration was very important. It planned a substantial political approximation of a dimension that —conditions permitting— could have fostered a historic change in bilateral relations and in the way that the United States was perceived in Mexico in order to then deal with substantial points of the agenda like migration and closer trade ties through the possible reformulation of some of NAFTA’s central issues. At the same time, from the time he took office, President George W. Bush’s government proposed to strengthen the relationship and even showed signs that it considered that conditions existed for building a special relationship. Both a new government in Mexico with fresh ideas about foreign policy and the initiation of a U.S. administration optimistic about bilateral relations made possible an initial climate of understanding and harmony that led to growing expectations about the future.