Salinas Pressing for Liberalized U.S. Trade : Drug Pledge by Mexico Applauded in Congress

WASHINGTON —  Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari won plaudits from Congress on Wednesday for pledging a stepped-up war on drug trafficking. He used the resulting good will to press U.S. officials to improve Mexico’s access to American markets.

“Mexico intends to eradicate drug trafficking at its very roots,” Salinas said in an address to a joint session of Congress. “This world fight is also our own.”

The United States and Mexico are entering “an era of new friendship,” Salinas said, and the mood surrounding his visit appeared to support his claim. As recently as two years ago, members of Congress were loudly denouncing Mexico for corruption, failure to cooperate with U.S. drug investigations and its criticism of U.S. policies in Latin America.

By contrast, Salinas’ speech was warmly applauded and in an earlier closed-door meeting with members of the House and Senate leaderships, “the reception was excellent,” said California Rep. Duncan L. Hunter (R-Coronado), one of those who attended.

More Liberal Trade Ties

Salinas seized that opening to press his case for more liberal trade relations.

“For Mexico’s economic modernization to be lasting, we must grow,” he said, “but growth requires greater and more secure access to the world’s largest market--that of the United States.”

Mexican companies seeking to send goods north across the border encounter numerous “non-tariff barriers” to their goods that U.S. firms no longer face in sending products south, Salinas claimed. U.S. officials dispute that assertion.

On Tuesday, Salinas and President Bush signed an agreement to open negotiations aimed at reducing trade barriers. The two countries also agreed on a program for the United States to provide technical advice to Mexican officials trying to reduce air pollution in Mexico City and water pollution along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Concerns about pollution along the border have been of particular concern to residents of San Diego. In his meeting with congressional leaders, Salinas pledged cooperation, Hunter said.

“He said that they’re committed to the plan,” which calls for reducing pollution generated on the Tijuana side of the border, Hunter said. “That was very good news. We’ve learned over the years that nothing happens unless it has the full backing of Mexico City.”

The warmth of Salinas’ reception reflects Washington’s vastly improved view of Mexico and its political leadership since Salinas’ election last year. Officials of the Reagan Administration saw Mexico as an increasingly unstable nation that one day could pose a serious security threat to America’s southern border. But President Bush and his aides see Salinas as a decisive leader who has put his nation on a path toward economic and political recovery.

Salinas reinforced that view by repeatedly telling Administration officials, members of Congress and journalists about his efforts to deregulate the Mexican economy and improve the climate for foreign investment.

‘Threat to Sovereignty’

At the same time, however, he stood firm on two issues that have been points of contention between the United States and Mexico in the past.

On drugs, for example, Salinas said that Mexico now views drug trafficking as “a threat to national sovereignty and to the security of the state, because in our country--as in all other nations--it corrupts whatever it touches.”

“We will cooperate,” he said, “but the responsibility for the fight in our country is exclusively ours, of Mexicans, and therefore, there will be no joint military operations on our soil.”

In the past, some U.S. officials have pushed for the right to pursue drug suspects across the border if they flee into Mexico. The Mexican government has refused to consider such “hot pursuit” requests.

Salinas was equally blunt on the question of immigration.

“Let’s get rid of myths,” he said in his speech. “Mexican workers do not push anyone out of a job. They work efficiently and with great dignity for wages, in many cases, below the market wage, doing jobs that are not done by American citizens.”