MORE TRUST ON BOTH SIDES OF THE BORDER

MEXICO CITY -- When I arrive at the White House tomorrow, I'll be bringing
something new in my briefcase. It won't be another petition; it won't be
another complaint; it won't be another request of the sort that many
Americans have become wary of. What I bring is simple yet significant: trust.

I realize that trust is not a concept that usually springs to mind when
Americans think about Mexico. For years, the United States operated on the
assumption that Mexico was governed by liars and thieves at worst or, at
best, by technocratic authoritarians. Meanwhile, Mexico has long harbored
suspicions about its neighbor to the north and acted accordingly. Bad blood
and distrust ran deep on both sides of the border, making collaboration on
many issues difficult if not impossible. The time has come to make trust
the keystone of our agenda.

Over the last few years much has changed: the United States and Mexico are
no longer just uneasy neighbors. The North American Free Trade Agreement
has created an economic partnership, based on shared goals and shared
responsibilities. The border is no longer the scar that Carlos Fuentes
described in "Gringo Viejo," but part of a North American identity.

More important, democracy has been brought about in Mexico by its people. I
won the election in 2000 because I recognized the profound changes that had
already taken place and because Mexico was ready to reject the past.

Political reform in Mexico is seeping into all structures of the federal
government and out to the state and local levels. The way political power
is exercised has begun to change dramatically. The relationship between
government and Mexican society is being rebuilt on the basis of
accountability and the rule of law. Relations between the government and
the media are based on greater transparency and openness. Our government is
guided by a system of checks and balances between the different branches of
government that curtails presidential power.

Mexico's democratization can lead to relations with the United States that
are based on trust and common goals, where differences of policy can be
resolved without rancor. Greater trust explains the important progress we
have made over the past few months on many issues.

Foremost among them is migration, an issue on which Mexico and the United
States have agreed to agree. The current situation requires far-reaching
policy reforms on both sides of the border. Addressing the situation of the
more than three million Mexicans currently in the United States without
legal status is one of the central issues in the negotiations currently
underway between our governments, along with significant increases in legal
entries, a seasonal or guest worker program, and even a shared
border-control program.

Dealing with the migration phenomenon will bring great benefits in both the
short and the long term. Working and living conditions would improve for
Mexican workers in the United States, disincentives would be created for
workers crossing the border without documents and, with the right regional
development programs, the Mexican work force could be given economic
incentives to stay home, bringing about growth in my country.

President Bush and I are committed to reaching an agreement that will be
fair and humane -- and realistic. We both realize that migration is not
simply a problem to be dealt with, but an opportunity to be seized. Migrant
labor bolsters the American economy, while migrant remittances fuel the
Mexican economy.

We must also make progress on other items of our bilateral agenda,
including counternarcotics cooperation. Our governments need to be united
against drug traffickers, whose actions pose such a great threat to our
societies.

We need to improve intelligence and information sharing, and to end
counterproductive measures like the annual drug certification process by
which the United States unilaterally determines which countries are
cooperating in the fight against drugs. Since the beginning of my
administration last December, cooperation between our governments has
allowed us to extradite an increased number of fugitives and to deliver
significant blows to all drug trafficking organizations in Mexico.

Greater trust will also allow more productive forms of interaction in our
hemisphere. Mexico and the United States can jointly work to broaden and
deepen human rights and democracy in the Americas. Although we will not
always see eye to eye, our growing partnership will allow us to disagree
constructively on regional and global issues like the proper way to engage
Cuba at a moment of change.

Previous Mexican governments lacked the legitimacy and the vision to
transform Mexico's foreign policy and to improve the United States- Mexico
relationship along these lines. Now is the time to put forward a number of
issues that affect both countries and to push decisively for new bilateral
understandings.

Tough decisions will have to be made by both governments, and they need to
be made now. If we lose momentum, we will lose the opportunities at hand.
Mexico is willing to tackle the difficult choices that lie ahead and fully
hopes that the United States will meet us halfway. This change in attitude
and policies will require trust and fair play. Trust has been sown, and now
it needs to flourish.