Good morning, everybody. Welcome to the Bipartisan Policy Center and to our event this morning about positive solutions to the Central American crisis. First and foremost, you know, weve heard about the Bipartisan Policy Center and the immigration project. The Bipartisan Policy Center exists to bring in ideas from both sides of the political aisle to be able to address countries challenges. The immigration process seeks to do this in a whole host of different ways and i think this event is very much in line with the work weve been doing on convening individuals, ideas, and Different Actors to the immigration challenges that this country faces. The genesis of this event was in a report that was just put out that has policy solutions to addressing the crisis. You know, what we were thinking was how can we come up with a very proactive, pragmatic and comprehensive solution to whats happening at the southern border, but not only the southern border, but throughout the rest of the region .
Border and efficiently how to manage it and important for communities and the United States and mexico and our economies as a whole. I dont think thats enough. Not enough for Mexican Border communities to really have the vibrant communities that we want and quality of life the people in the border region aspire to. We need do more than move wigets back and forth across the border. It requires strategies that leverage unique positions for communities across the border as a way to attract Companies Across the region. There is a unique value there and competitive of the United States and mexico side by side that makes working and producing in the border region particularly attractive and interesting. If we look back in time and see the Border Industrialization Program of the 1960s, it was the beginning of free trade between our two countries, focused on the border region, Mexican Border communities in particular. It was effective in attracting a certain amount of investment to the mexican
Efficiently, effectively, and understanding how you can do that what you balance that with security challenges at the border and that is of fundamental importance for border communities and our economies as a whole. However, i do not think that is enough. Not enough for u. S. Border communities or for Mexican Border communities to really have the vibrant communities that we want and the quality of life that people in the Border Regions aspire to. This requires strategies for Economic Development that leverage the unique position of those communities along the border as a way to attract companies to do business in the region. There is a unique Value Proposition there. The combination of the competitive advantages of the two countries sidebyside that makes working and producing in the border region particularly attractive and interesting. If we look back over time and go border say the Industrialization Program of the 1960s, the beginning of free trade between the countries, andsed on th
Aspects of security. Security at the ports of entry is just as important as security between the ports of entry. And, you know, since then weve seen efforts and i think trade community has responded. Congress has responded. Weve seen bills to add more officers. We need other resources at the border. I think at first the only resource were being drawn from southern ports of entry and our first point was what about the airports . What about the seaport . What about the northern ports . You cant pick just one area and say well thats the only area that will get hurt. So beyond that weve seen may 7th, tomato duties went into effect. Now duties on mexican tomatoes. When tariff threat came up, that would have equalled 25 tariffs, 3 billion in tariffs just on what we eat and that constitutes a food tax. In the meantime we had these issues. Thats a glimpse into what we see at the border but we cant stop and think that we cant move forward because theres a lot of things we can move forward on. I
I would not provide information beyond that which is already public in any appearance before congress. Former special Counsel Robert Mueller is set to appear before two committees of congress. The House Judiciary Committee and the House Intelligence Committee on wednesday july 17th at 9 00 a. M. Eastern. Hell testify in open session about his report into russian interference in the 2016 election. Watch live coverage on cspan3, only at cspan. Org or online with cspan radio app. A discussion on Economic Impact on improving management of the u. S. Mexico border. The Wilson Center in washington, d. C. , is the host of this conversation on strengthening economic competitiveness for both countries. Thanks to the few and the proud who are here. Weve got a few more in the hallway who will come in and join us. Thanks for sticking with us throughout the whole session today. We do have one more really interesting session. For me this is a really important one. Weve spoken for a lot of the day abo