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107th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. CON. RES. 35

 Expressing the sense of Congress with respect to the upcoming trip of 
President George W. Bush to Mexico to meet with newly elected President 
Vicente Fox, and with respect to future cooperative efforts between the 
                       United States and Mexico.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 14, 2001

   Mr. Goss submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was 
          referred to the Committee on International Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION


 
 Expressing the sense of Congress with respect to the upcoming trip of 
President George W. Bush to Mexico to meet with newly elected President 
Vicente Fox, and with respect to future cooperative efforts between the 
                       United States and Mexico.

Whereas Vicente Fox Quesada of the Alliance for Change (consisting of the 
        National Action Party and the Mexican Green Party) was sworn in as 
        President of the United Mexican States on December 1, 2000, the first 
        opposition candidate to be elected president in Mexico in seven decades;
Whereas the United States, as Mexico's neighbor, ally, and partner in the 
        Hemisphere, has a strong interest in seeing President Fox advance 
        prosperity and democracy during his term of office;
Whereas President George W. Bush and President Vicente Fox have demonstrated 
        their mutual willingness to forge a deeper alliance between the United 
        States and Mexico by making President Bush's first foreign trip as 
        President of the United States to Mexico on February 16, 2001;
Whereas both presidents recognize that a strong, steady Mexican economy can be 
        the foundation to help solve many of the challenges shared by the two 
        countries, such as immigration, environmental quality, organized crime, 
        corruption, and trafficking in illicit narcotics;
Whereas the economic cooperation spearheaded by the North American Free Trade 
        Agreement (NAFTA) has established Mexico as the second largest trading 
        partner of the United States, with a two-way trade of $174,000,000,000 
        each year;
Whereas the North American Development Bank and its sister institution, the 
        Border Environment Cooperation Commission, were established to promote 
        environmental infrastructure development that meets the needs of border 
        communities;
Whereas the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, an independent self-
        sustaining United States Government agency responsible for facilitating 
        the investment of United States private sector capital in emerging 
        markets, has recently developed a small business-financing program to 
        support United States investment in Mexico;
Whereas under the North American Free Trade Agreement the United States 
        currently has an annual limit on the number of visas that may be issued 
        to Mexican business executives for entry into the United States but 
        there is no such limit with respect to the Canadian business executives;
Whereas United States-Mexico border tensions have continued to escalate, with 
        the number of illegal migrant deaths increasing 400 percent since the 
        mid 1990s; and
Whereas the Government of Mexico, through the establishment of a special cabinet 
        commission, has made a renewed commitment, with increased resources, to 
        combat drug trafficking and corruption: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), 
That it is the sense of Congress that the President should work with 
the Government of Mexico to advance bilateral cooperation and should, 
among other initiatives, seek to--
            (1) encourage economic growth and development to benefit 
        both the United States and Mexico, including developing a 
        common strategy to improve the flow of credit and United States 
        investment opportunities in Mexico, as well as increasing 
        funding of entrepreneurial programs of all sizes, from micro- 
        to large-scale enterprises;
            (2) strengthen cooperation between the United States and 
        Mexican military and law enforcement entities for the purpose 
        of addressing common threats to the security of the two 
        countries, including illegal drug trafficking, illegal 
        immigration, and money laundering;
            (3) upon the request of President Fox--
                    (A) provide assistance to Mexico in support of 
                President Fox's plan to reform Mexico's entire judicial 
                system and combat inherent corruption within Mexico's 
                law enforcement system; and
                    (B) provide assistance to the Government of Mexico 
                to strengthen the institutions that are integral to 
                democracy;
            (4) develop a common strategy to address undocumented and 
        documented immigration between the United States and Mexico 
        through increased cooperation, coordination, and economic 
        development programs;
            (5) develop a common strategy for fighting the illicit drug 
        trade by reducing the demand for illicit drugs through 
        intensification of anti-drug information and education, 
        improvement of intelligence sharing and the coordination of 
        counterdrug activities, and increasing maritime and logistics 
        cooperation to improve the respective capacities of the two 
        countries to disrupt drug shipments by land, air, and sea;
            (6) encourage bilateral and multilateral environmental 
        protection activities with Mexico, including strengthening the 
        North American Development Bank (NADbank) so as to facilitate 
        expansion of the bank;
            (7) obtain the support of the Government of Mexico to 
        assist the Government of Colombia in achieving a peaceful 
        political resolution to the conflict in Colombia; and
            (8) review the current illicit drug certification process, 
        and should seek to be open to consideration of other evaluation 
        mechanisms that would promote increased cooperation and 
        effectiveness in combating the illicit drug trade.
    Sec. 2. The Clerk of the House of Representatives shall transmit a 
copy of this concurrent resolution to the President.
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