Path: news.cs.columbia.edu!newsmaster.cc.columbia.edu!flute.clari.net!soprano.clari.net!clarinews
X-Fn: cn/Umexico-us.RvaD_9FD
Distribution: cl-3,cl-edu,cl-4,cl-corp,cl-be
X-No-Archive: yes
From: C-upi@clari.net (UPI / PAUL BASKEN)
Newsgroups: clari.world.americas.mexico,clari.world.americas.meso
Subject: Clinton, lawmakers headed for Mexico
Keywords: US government, US federal, international, non-usa government,
	us border areas, economy, non-usa economy
Organization: Copyright 1999 by United Press International (via ClariNet)
Message-ID: <Umexico-usURvaD_9FD@clari.net>
Lines: 117
Date: Sat, 13 Feb 1999 12:32:39 PST
Location: Latin America
ACategory: washington
Slugword: mexico-us
Threadword: mexico
Priority: regular
Format: regular
Approved: e.news@clari.net
Note: (NOTE: clinton departure set for 3:15 p.m. est sunday)
 (UPI Focus)
Xref: news.cs.columbia.edu clari.world.americas.mexico:11726 clari.world.americas.meso:11664

  	  				 
	WASHINGTON, Feb. 13 (UPI) -- President Clinton was headed to Mexico  
for his semiannual consultation with his Mexican counterpart, Ernesto 
Zedillo, taking along two dozen lawmakers for a two-day visit to the 
ancient city of Merida. 
	Clinton originally planned the visit as part of a weeklong tour that  
also included stops in several Central American countries, but he 
postponed all but the Mexico stop until March to await his acquittal in 
the impeachment trial. 
	U.S. officials anticipated no major new agreements between Clinton  
and Zedillo, although they predicted a series of deal-signings in such 
areas as trade, environmental protection, immigration, border safety and 
health care. 
	Clinton's visit on Sunday evening and Monday also comes days before  
he is due to make his annual March 1 decision on whether to add Mexico 
to the small list of countries deemed to be not cooperating in the fight 
against drugs. 
	In a predictable repeat of the debate over recent years, Clinton is  
likely to renew his certification of Mexico's drug-fighting efforts, and 
face criticisms from lawmakers who disagree and from Mexicans offended 
by the process. 
	``We do not think it is fair that one country starts certifying  
others,'' Mexican Interior Minister Francisco Labastida Ochoa said after 
visiting Washington in preparation for Clinton's trip. ``We have never 
accepted that, and we never will.'' 
	Clinton is due to be joined on the trip by first lady Hillary Rodham  
Clinton and 24 members of Congress, including two senators and four 
Republicans, who will meet with their counterparts from the Mexican 
Congress, which is the first in the modern era with an opposition 
majority in its lower house. 
	``This is a reminder,'' national security adviser Sandy Berger said  
of the Mexican legislature, ``of what President Zedillo has done to 
deepen Mexican democracy and to make Mexico a more pluralistic society.'' 
	Clinton was due to arrive late Sunday in Merida and join Zedillo and  
their wives for a private dinner at Palacio Canton. 
	The two presidents planned to meet the next day for several hours at  
a historic hotel outside the city, both by themselves and later with 
Cabinet-level advisers, then return to Merida to sign a joint 
declaration. 
	Clinton also was expected to address a group of business leaders and  
make his traditional visit while in foreign countries with members of 
the U.S. diplomatic community before returning to Washington late 
Monday. 
	But he was not expected to have time on his abbreviated visit to tour  
Merida, an ancient city of tree-lined boulevards and spectacular 
colonial mansions known as the ``Paris of the West,'' which is located 
near the tip of the Yucatan Peninsula and close to the Mayan ruins of 
Uxmal and Chichen-Itza. 
	Berger said Clinton, who tries to meet twice a year with his Mexican  
counterpart, will devote the visit to making ``steady, practical 
progress across the range of common interests that we have with Mexico.'' 
	He said the agenda is topped by economic and trade matters, crediting  
the 5-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement between the United 
States, Canada and Mexico with helping the three countries weather the 
worldwide financial crisis. 
	He said U.S. exports to Mexico now are $79 billion a year, more than  
twice pre-NAFTA figures, with Mexico accounting for nearly 20 percent of 
total U.S. merchandise export growth in the last five years. 
	``It's worth remembering that our trade relationship with Mexico has  
protected a lot of American workers from losing their jobs at a time of 
tremendous uncertainty and upheaval in the global economy,'' Berger 
said. 
	``This is a powerful argument for continued liberalization of trade  
in the hemisphere, including the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas,'' 
Berger said, referring to plans for an even-larger regional economic 
grouping. 
	While reiterating the benefits of NAFTA, Berger said U.S. officials  
planned to raise the specific concerns of U.S. companies in such areas 
as telecommunications, intellectual property rights and agriculture. 
	Although Berger declined to predict Clinton's decision on drug  
certification, he and other officials have given strong signals that 
Mexico would win approval, sparing it the economic penalties generally 
required under U.S. law. 
	``It's important to remember what the purpose of certification is and  
what it is not,'' Berger said. ``It is not to measure the extent of 
Mexico's problems. It's intended to assess the extent of its cooperation 
with us in overcoming them.'' 
	Berger praised Zedillo's announcement last week of a $500 million  
increase in counternarcotics efforts, and said U.S. and Mexican 
officials expected to sign deals during Clinton's visit on plans for 
improving cross-border undercover operations and strengthening Mexico's 
law enforcement institutions, including its new federal preventative 
police. 
	He said Clinton and an entourage of top advisers -- including  
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Attorney General Janet Reno, 
Energy Secretary William Richardson and drug czar Barry McCaffrey -- 
planned to discuss a series of other matters of particular importance to 
the border region. 
	They include strengthening cross-border cooperation against  
trafficking in human beings, improving methods for handling complaints 
of border violence, cooperating in epidemiology in the border region, 
battling a new strain of drug-resistant tuberculosis along the border, 
improving wastewater treatment in border communities, and better warning 
U.S. citizens of Mexican gun laws. 
	Officials said the U.S.-Mexico talks also will be aimed at reaching  
agreements in areas that include coordinating action against global 
warming, strengthening environmental protection provisions under NAFTA, 
expanding relief efforts for Central American victims of Hurricane 
Mitch, improving visibility in the Big Bend National Park, increasing 
cooperation against forest fires, and better protecting endangered 
species, particularly dolphins. 
	The 24-member congressional delegation set to accompany Clinton  
includes two Democratic senators, Joseph Biden of Delaware and Daniel 
Akaka of Hawaii, and four Republican members of the House, Reps. Jim 
Ramstad of Minnesota, Rob Portman of Ohio, Mark Sanford of South 
Carolina, and Kevin Brady of Texas. 
	The list of House Democrats includes six more Texans: Reps. Ruben  
Hinojosa, Nick Lampson, Ciro Rodriguez, Charles Gonzalez, Sheila Jackson 
Lee and Gene Green. 
	It also includes three from California, Reps. Xavier Becerra, Bob  
Filner and Grace Napolitano; and another three from New York, Reps. 
Charles Rangel, John LaFalce and Michael McNulty. 
	And it includes Reps. William Jefferson of Louisiana, Ed Pastor of  
Arizona, Carlos Romero-Barcelo of Puerto Rico, Jim Davis of Florida, 
Baron Hill of Indiana and Dennis Moore of Kansas. 
  	   	

