FOX AND BUSH: SOME FODDER FOR KEY FOREIGN POLICY VICTORIES

President Bush and Mexico's President Vicente Fox are in a good position to
help one another when they convene at Fox's ranch in northern Mexico later
this week. Thus they have plenty of incentive to give the bilateral
relationship a boost.

Fox can help provide the early foreign policy victory that Bush needs to
quiet critics who fret that he lacks the gravitas and grasp to lead the
nation in the international arena.

Bush is familiar with Fox and the complex issues that cross the border and
cut in both directions. Bush also is said to see all of Latin America as a
unique opportunity for a foreign policy legacy.

Fox, who is struggling to come to grips with Mexico's society, economy and
politics, also could use a boost from Bush that would strengthen Fox's
momentum after he became the first president to break the Institutional
Revolutionary Party's 70-year stranglehold on the Mexican government.

Progress in dealing with the United States in a new, more equal partnership
would go a long way toward cementing Fox's foothold and legitimacy as he
tackles a reform agenda that even his supporters fear may be too ambitious.

Secretary of State Colin Powell and Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge
Castaneda met recently to sketch out a possible agenda for the Feb. 16
meeting of the two new presidents. To no one's surprise, issues such as
violence along the border, drugs, trade and immigration were included.

There is momentum in Washington on one particular aspect of the drug
problem that could amount to a substantive victory for both Bush and Fox.

The counterproductive and often humiliating drug certification process is
pretty much reviled throughout Latin America, and March 1 is the date when
President Bush will have to certify before Congress that Mexico's
counternarcotics efforts have met the criteria.

Mexicans take the threat of unilateral sanctions as an affront each year,
and it distracts from the debate and the legitimate contention that the
United States, with its insatiable demand for illegal drugs, is at least an
equal part in creating the problem.

The certification process, which has been referred to as a "major source of
friction," needs to be eliminated.

U.S. Sens. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and John McCain, R-Ariz., have
revived legislation that failed in past Congresses. The bill would suspend
the process for two years, allowing time to develop more effective tools
for anti-drug cooperation. The Organization of American States'
Multilateral Evaluation Mechanism offers one alternative.

If Bush chooses to support this effort, he will have to buck right-wing,
revanchist elements of his own party, and that also could help him in his
search for bipartisanship in Washington.

Sens. Phil Gramm and Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas have expressed a
willingness to look at certification reform. Their early support of this
legislation could help both Bush and the Republican Party.

Gramm has presented a high profile in another area. In a recent meeting
with Fox, Gramm proposed some sort of "guest worker" program.

There is no shortage of issues, and there is no shortage of reasons why key
agreements on fresh approaches to those issues would help both Bush and Fox
as well as the cross-border relationship. And that, of course, also
promises to help Texas.