Governor Meets With Mexico President Felipe Calderón, Builds On Strong Partnership Between California And Mexico
Today, Governor Schwarzenegger met with Mexico President Felipe Calderón at the State Capitol in Sacramento to further strengthen California’s cross-border partnership and collaboration with Mexico. In this meeting, the Governor will discuss the many shared challenges California and Mexico face, including ensuring the safety of our citizens, protecting the environment and keeping our economies strong. The two leaders will also discuss ways to strengthen ties and formalize partnerships to exchange information, expertise and technology. As part of these efforts, officials from both California and Mexico will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to team up in the fight against climate change, protect the environment and conserve our precious natural resources.
Strengthening ties with Mexico is key to our current and future economic health. Boosting trade, tourism and goods movement between California and Mexico creates jobs and helps our economies grow.
Mexico is California’s top trade partner. Mexico is California’s number one export market, with $19.6 billion in export trade flowing to Mexico from California. These exports sustain thousands of California businesses and support nearly 200,000 jobs.
Since 2002, California’s agricultural exports to Mexico have nearly doubled in value, making it one of the state’s fastest growing export markets. Mexico alone accounts for 15 percent of California’s annual goods exports.
California’s agricultural exports to Mexico represent an estimated 5 percent of the total U.S. agricultural exports to this market.
Mexico is California’s top international tourism market. According to the California Travel and Tourism Commission, California had approximately 8.6 million Mexican visitors in 2005.
While here, visitors from Mexico spent an estimated $1.6 billion in California, ranking first among all international markets.
The Governor shares President Calderón’s commitment to investing in infrastructure. Since taking office, President Calderón has called for unprecedented investment in Mexico’s infrastructure, including a public-private infrastructure plan to build railways, roads, seaports, airports, telecommunications, water supply systems, dams, electricity and oil installations.
Investing in infrastructure on both sides of the border and utilizing public-private partnerships is an investment in the future and will improve goods movement, trade and quality of life in California and Mexico for years to come.
Teaming up to protect the environment and fight climate change ensures that the natural resources we share are enjoyed by future generations on both sides of the border. Today officials from the United Mexican States’ Ministry of Environmental and Natural Resources and California’s Environmental Protection Agency, Resources Agency and Department of Food and Agriculture will sign an MOU to improve cross-border collaboration on environmental protection.
This MOU is an agreement between Mexico and California to work cooperatively on ways to enhance policies for environmental protection and sustainable natural resources. The agreement calls for a Joint Action Plan to be developed and implemented by the signing agencies.
The Governor is committed to continuing to build California’s relationship with Mexico. The Governor has made it a priority to work closely with Mexico to open new markets, attract new investments and build the partnerships necessary to expand California’s international trade, pump up the state’s economy and improve the environment.
Mexico Trade Mission: In November 2006, the Governor led more than 60 members of the agriculture, tourism and business communities on a two-day trade missionto Mexico CityMonterrey, Mexico. and
During his trade mission, the Governor met with then President-Elect Calderón, where they discussed issues of concern to both governments including trade, immigration and protecting the environment.
Border Governors Conference: This August, Governor Schwarzenegger will chair the 26th Border Governors Conferencein Los Angeles. The conference will be attended by governors from Arizona, Baja California, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, New Mexico, Sonora, Tamaulipas and Texas. They will address the many issues impacting states on both sides of the border, including agriculture, security, economic development, education, energy, environment, health and tourism.
At the 25th Border Governors Conferencein September 2007 in Puerto Peñasco, Sonora, the Governor and nine other United States and Mexico border governors signed a joint declarationto continue fostering cooperation between the 10 member states that will improve economic prosperity, environmental sustainability and quality of life.
