I am at the mexico institute. I am cochair of the Advisory Board for the institute and it is my great pleasure to be here. From right after his election in he4, 1 of the first things did was invest in the partnership with mexico. He recognized how important arizona is to mexico. One of his first trips, i got to receive him when i was ambassador. Our very first trip. Thank you for the hospitality. Going back to mexico city was our First International trip upon reelection. I am having a tough time figuring out what people complain about the heat in arizona. It gets a little hot. Just a further south. A state you partner with a lot. It gets hotter sometimes. Anyway, it is great to have the governor here with us today. Also at theother inauguration of the new federal government in mexico. That is important for you. Maybe if you could talk a little bit first about that relationship with the federal government then talk a little bit about your Great Partnership that you have developed with sonora. It was a great event. My background is in the private sector. I was an outsider and business person who ran for governor. I knew that the relationship with mexico was our number one customer. It is arizonas number one trading partner times four. Its not even close. I was shocked that we did not have a chief executive visit mexico in nearly a decade. We did go to mexico city for that First International trip. It was such an incredibly warm and inviting reception. All i had to do was present my Business Card to the new governor and we were off to a fresh start. That was a real positive. It was also reassuring. People,t a lot of his academics and Business Leaders. Everyone was able to see that and see the opportunity that existed with the country of mexico. Then several months later, was elected, the first female governor of sonora stop my wife and i were able to attend her inauguration and what began as a relationship grew into a partnership and then very quickly a warm friendship. They have spent time with us at christmas in arizona, they have come out for the last three phoenix opens and we routinely reciprocate with the Arizona Mexico Commission was started 60 years ago to really secure the relationship of mexico and today the relationship is as strong or stronger than it has ever been, and it is really built on the personal relationships. When we were going to the new president s inauguration, the ability to meet the new members of the administration was incredibly helpful. Whether it was our initial visit with you, ambassador, or ambassador jacobson, we have been very fortunate, and we will continue to build and grow these relationships. That has been one of the key things, youre consistent recognition of the importance of this relationship. What are some of the big issues on the agenda, in addition that you can work with those personal relationships youve developed, but what are you trying to work through . I would say the Biggest Issue for us in sticking to state issues is trade and that relationship, and the proof really is in the pudding. We have a 16. 6 billion trade footprint between arizona and mexico. It is up 7. 7 , up 7 this year. This is astronomical growth. I was able in my second state of the state to say i would be remiss if i didnt think my partner in growing arizonas economy. I gave the credit to governor jerry brown. [applause] he has been just great. We have been pushing all kinds of people and producers into our state. There was a Technology Company in Northern California that was looking for a new place to locate their manufacturing headquarters, 60 different markets and 13 different states as a business person im often more comfortable in those types of negotiations, i know what motivates a business person but as a state legislature i cant always figure it out. I was on the third and final interview and they asked how was your relationship with mexico . And i said if thats important to you or critical in your final decision, i want to encourage you to find out for yourself. They met with the Governors Team and two months later on the steps of the arizona capital myself in the governor along with the leaders of various Motor Companies were able to cut the ribbon on what is going to be a manufacturing plant in arizona county. It was due to the relationship and the trade relationship with mexico. There will be a growth for arizona and a growth in jobs for sonora. Its a true winwin, which is very possible in this economy. Thats great. We know that, for bigger firms, this can have a lot of benefit. What about smaller communities, smaller firms . How have you seen that develop in what are you doing to bring some of them into this exchange . Excellent question. What we are seeing in phoenix and Maricopa County is off the charts in terms of growth and success, but we also have rural arizona, and of course our border communities san luis, douglas, where so much of the crossborder trade happens along with the agriculture, i know both countries are so proud of it. Those relationships have been important to us as well. Weve done things like a unified Cargo Processing Program that allows our trucks and congress to be checked once and it provides for Public Safety but it also allows for a time where time is money in these fragile products are so perishable. Weve gone from an average weight of eight hours at the border of now less than 40 minutes through this type of relationship. So working with the mayors of these towns, with the Business Leaders that are so reliant on the tree it goes back generations. These are often times Family Businesses and these are the times they want and we want that as well. The larger issues i think the senator did a great job of summarizing those issues. If it was left to the states all of these things would be soft. It really is the federal government in the u. S. Congress that needs to act to fix the situation, to make sure we can continue to have robust trade. We are very excited about the usmca. We had the ambassador come to arizona and address our business community. She said something that i thought was compelling, that if you care about mexico, you will vote yes on the usmca. We have made certain that all of our congresspeople and delegation of her that loud and clear. So you think they can have that same bipartisan cooperation that you had in the past of california . You think you can get them pushing i really think it should be done as quickly as possible. I would like to remind them that this is 2019, not 2020. This isnt a partisan issue, it shouldnt be part of the election cycle. And i am someone who was a fan of nafta. Im a believer in free and fair trade, and if the definition of free and fair trade is no tariffs, no subsidies, no barriers, i will accept that. But i think weve heard ambassador lighthizer say that if we cant pass the usmca the other discussions we are having with japan, with china, with some of the other positive opportunities for our economies wont happen. I really think this is a serious issue and one that is to the benefit that of all our people. Thank you very much. Lets talk a little bit about the other challenges we have migration, illicit drugs, both of which are serious challenges in different places. More needs to be done on each of those. There is now an agreement on migration, the countries are working to reduce and manage those flows better. We still have the illicit drugs flowing northward that need to be handled. What is your perspective as governor . Is a border governor, Public Safety is something i wake up every morning and am concerned about. We work closely now with our federal government so that we have joint cooperation between customs and border patrol, between the men and women that are on the border, our colonel who runs the department of Public Safety and then local Law Enforcement in these border towns, and there is a focus of lets find the drug cartels and human trafficking, the child sex trafficking. Lets make sure the one Enforcement Effort is being focused. We have had a positive cooperation from our federal government, and we have Law Enforcement leaders on both sides of the border that coordinate on this. So that has been a real positive. There will always be more to do. Thats just part of ongoing Law Enforcement and Public Safety. The biggest challenge has been on the humanitarian crisis, what is happened from the northern triangle with el salvador, honduras, and guatemala. I would say as difficult as the last couple months have been and they have been very difficult our nonprofits and faithbased communities are overwhelmed and at the breaking point. We are not only cooperating on the Public Safety side, we are now having cooperation and communication on the humanitarian side. I think that has gone a long way to avoid some of the things that have been discussed and i am hopeful to avoid it. I want to separate these issues out from trade and the economy, Public Safety from what i have stated we do make sure we continue to communicate and cooperate on that. And again, to call on our congress for some of the action here, this has been lingering for some time. There is enough blame to go around. This has been both republican and democrat administrations. I think its an issue from an arizona perspective that we would like to see solved. And you understand this as a former businessman. This is the cost of unpredictability and uncertainty, trying to run a business and plan your investments, to have these different threats of disrupting that business is very costly. But you probably lived through that. Doug ducey it is hard to measure because when something doesnt happen, but it costs, when you talk about this trade footprint growing at 7. 7 with uncertainty on both sides of the border, what could happen in terms of Capital Investment and increased trade, if we did have some action from our legislative bodies to address and these are very real issues. I agree with you and i agree theres a lot of responsibility to go around and the solution is for everybody to accept that responsibility and work together, and the u. S. And with others. Doug ducey we go out of our way to point out that this bloc we have to trade with, the fact that we have canada and mexico as our neighbors, is an incredible asset. These are our friends and trading partners and allies and i think we need to continue to communicate that. I encourage other governors to have these relationships of mexico city, we would get all kinds of invites to go all over the globe and i think everyone should visit mexico city in the first year in office because there could be 38 other governors sitting here right now that have a top three trading relationship with the nation of mexico, that is something that has benefited us that we very much enjoy and value. Thats great. Can we maybe take one or two questions from the audience . Questions for the governor . Sam. Russ jones, proud arizona n. We will be celebrating our 60th anniversary, which is something in itself thats pretty incredible. You are to become lamented on your relationship. Yesterday i read that you and the governor put out a joint declaration could you expand on that . As far as i know, you are the only two binational governors that have made this kind of a stand on this issue. Doug ducey thank you, and thanks for pointing that out. The governor and i did put out a joint letter yesterday under both our signatures calling on our legislative bodies to ratify positively to vote yes on the usmca, and we have been on the same page on this since the beginning. There has been a movement within the nga and i have seen some politics creep into this discussion. The governor and i knew this agreements benefits both our states and our countries and we wanted to demonstrate that leadership and i want to say thank you to you for the leadership youve shown on the arizonamexico commission and for all the good things we like to brag that its the leafy Green Capital of the world, and they do a great job there. Thank you. Back there . Hi, governor. I wonder if you would talk about your view of whats going on over at the Commerce Department on the trade extension. They are obviously making a lot of noise and i know arizona producers have a very different view. Doug ducey i will leave this trade with mexico the importance of tomatoes and the existing agreements that are there are something we want to value and protect. We. And as consumers, we all look forward to having a good availability of tomatoes all year round. Delicious tomatoes. I know there has been a lot of toort between the southeast be more involved in this. We are fine with expanding the market. We think that is something that is a positive. We believe some of these efforts to limit or direct the market will be beneficial to either country. Thats not good for these trade relationships longterm. Certainly not good for people to put up a Capital Investment, employee people that do the work area we dont want to see anyone have the rug pulled out from underneath them and some of these changes in regulation. [applause] thanks for coming back in. Were a full illustrate it appreciate everyones patient moving around. I am delighted to introduce to you ambassador martha barcena. Ambassador barcena is the first female ambassador of mexico to the united states. Shes been a member of the Foreign Service for a long time and mexicos a professional in this trajectory that shes been the Foreign Service since 1979 including many important post but among those ambassador to the kingdom of denmark and ambassador to the public of turkey, nonresident to turkmenistan composter she was a
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