U.S.-Mexico border issues focus of summit

CNN
August 20, 2001

U.S.-Mexico border issues focus of summit

                 EDINBURG, Texas (AP) -- There's a mall that boasts more sales per
                 square foot (meter) than any other in America. There are lines out the
                 door of elementary school admissions offices. Everywhere, there are new
                 roads.

                 Such is South Texas, a region swelling with wealth, population and political
                 importance since the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
                 helped annual U.S.-Mexico trade reach $257 billion.

But the area also is ground zero for problems related to NAFTA, such as traffic
congestion, water and disease.

A three-day summit beginning Wednes day will bring high-level officials from
both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border together to discuss these and other issues.

                 U.S. President George W. Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox are among
                 the invited guests. U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta will deliver
                 a keynote address.

                 "The border has become the front door to not only Mexico but Latin America,"
                 said Roland Arriola of the University of Texas at Pan American, which is
                 hosting the summit.

                 "Just between Laredo and Brownsville, we have 54 percent of all trade between
                 the U.S. and Mexico, which is staggering. So when you're talking about trade
                 between the U.S. and Mexico, you're talking about South Texas."

The campus itself reflects the region. Its student body of about 12,000 is 85
percent Hispanic. Many of the students are poor, first-generation Americans.

                 In the last decade, it has seen more than $60 million in new construction to
                 accommodate new programs, including new doctorate degrees in international
                 business and education. It's linked by microwave radio to the Tamaulipas
                 university system in Mexico, which is less than 20 miles (32 kilometers) away.

                 University officials said they hope to bring a national spotlight to a frontier that
                 Americans who are north of the Nueces River still see as rough around the
                 edges.

                 Already there are crisis conditions involving the water supply, power and
                 transportation needs for the 7 million people living within a 150-mile
                 (240-kilometer) radius of Edinburg. The radius straddles the border and is
                 considered by some to be a bi-national region.

                 Mexican water officials are contesting the terms of a 1944 treaty divvying water
                 among water rights holders, which include municipalities, on both sides of the
                 border.

                 Meanwhile, Mexican and U.S. federal officials are battling over safety
                 specifications for Mexican trucks. The Mexicans said too-strict regulations will
                 hamper their ability to bring goods to the United States.

                 "Vast economic expansion has caused us to outgrow our current
                 infrastructure," said U.S. Rep. Ruben Hinojosa, a Texas Democrat from
                 Mercedes who will be attending the summit.