Governors from four Southwestern U.S. states and five Mexican states met last week at the annual Border Governors' Conference in Santa Fe, pledging to work toward increased cooperation in key border issues such as drug trafficking and border crossings.
The conference, hosted this year by New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, is a forum for discussion and provides an opportunity for individual dialogue among the governors. Attendees included Fife Syniington of Arizona, Pete Wilson of California, and George W. Bush of Texas. Governors from Mexico included Francisco Barrio Terrazas of Chihuahua, Benjamin Clariond Reyes-Retana of Nuevo Leon, Hector Teran Teran of Baja California, and Manuel Cavazos Lerma of Tamaulipas.
Topics for discussion included nontariff trade barriers, environmental concerns, consular posts, and border crossings. The NAFTA agreement was also a subject on the minds of the governors, who passed a joint declaration supporting the trade agreement and agreeing to cooperate on border crossing and environmental issues.