The Fourth Member of NAFTA: The U.S.-Mexico Border

The North American Free Trade Agreement has a fourth member, the U.S.-Mexico border, with 22 million inhabitants, $300 billion in gross domestic product, $100 billion in trade, and a unique history and culture. In 1995, it witnessed some 225 million legal frontier crossings each way, mostly Mexican shoppers, who spent $22 billion in the United States, paid $ 1.7 billion in taxes, and generated 400,000 jobs but received no services. Balanced against the costs of Mexican illegals, American taxpayers made a 600 percent profit. This made Mexico the United States' second- (not third-) largest trading partner. Paso del Norte (Juárez-El Paso) is the border's capital, a binational metropolis of 2 million. Problems abound, from water, immigration, and drug trafficking to public safety, health, welfare, the environment, and infrastructure. But they are not being effectively addressed because they run east-west (from San Diego to Corpus Christi), while government authority and interests run north-south, to and from Washington, Mexico City, and nine state capitals. A binational bankable Border Authority is urgently needed.