MONTREAL—Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez has a strategy for dealing with the pressing issue of millions of Mexicans living illegally in the United States: Think small.
It's a dramatic contrast with the ways of his predecessor, Jorge Castaneda, who resigned in January.
Castaneda was once solidly in command of his portfolio, having staked his career on making a breakthrough agreement on migration matters with the United States.
But then Sept. 11 happened — and Castaneda's hoped-for agreement with the U.S. did not.
Ultimately, he resigned.
Derbez, a 56-year-old international economist, has a very different approach.
"Rather than going for what my predecessor called `the whole enchilada,' I am trying to see how we can slice the enchilada," he said with a wry smile, before speaking to the Conférence de Montréal last week.
Derbez wants to see what he can do "on a piecemeal basis" for Mexican migrants living in the United States.
Castaneda, as he put it in the current issue of Foreign Affairs, tried to achieve "a comprehensive and long-term solution to the problem of migration from Mexico to the United States."
Derbez is more pragmatic, looking at small, strategic ways to deal with the issue.
Rather than seeking to negotiate an overall solution with the Bush administration, he is looking at those places where undocumented migrants actually live, the problems they confront and the difficulties they cause the U.S.
About 4 million undocumented Mexicans living in the U.S. are unable — legally — to get drivers' licences, open bank accounts or even rent accommodation.
"What can be done at the level of the state and the county, slowly, from the bottom up?" Derbez asked.
That, he said, is where the problem of undocumented migrants is most keenly felt, not in Washington.
"People may be driving cars without proper documents," he noted, observing that American state and county officials reasonably want to ensure that drivers are competent, know the rules and can read signs and directions.
"They want to make life more secure for the people living in the county."
After Castaneda resigned, U.S. officials observed privately and with regret that the former foreign minister had failed to recognize that American priorities had changed fundamentally after Sept. 11. Derbez, however, has not made that mistake.
"The priorities have changed," he said. "The priority is terrorism and security. What we do on security and terrorism is the number one priority."
Derbez is similarly practical in his view of Mexico's relations with Canada, saying that the two countries share interests in NAFTA as well as plans for a Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA).
Both countries have a similar interest in keeping their border with the United States as open as possible, and Derbez said Mexico is learning from the way Canada does business with the U.S.
Like many Mexican officials since President Vicente Fox was sworn in three years ago, Derbez stresses that Mexico has the same view of human rights and environmental issues as Canada does — in contrast with previous Mexican administrations, which bristled when such concerns were mentioned.
But Derbez argues that Canada and Mexico agree that human rights and the environment should be central in discussions about the Americas — and the challenges in Venezuela, Colombia and Cuba.
And he sees Canada as an ally in discussions about the FTAA.
"Why? Because we both accept that there should be a special and differential treatment for smaller countries and economies," he said. "We can work together, the Mexican and Canadian governments, in trying to look at how possible it is to provide special and differential treatment for the smaller economies in the region."
This would involve giving countries more flexible timetables to adjust their tariffs to the requirements of a free trade agreement.
Derbez said Canada has been willing to open its economy more quickly than Mexico to imports, particularly from small, developing countries.
"You have the perception that this is helpful, and the way to provide development to other nations. This is also something you bring (to the relationship)."
He diplomatically left unsaid that the Bush administration takes a very different view of free trade, retaining punitive trade remedies that have characterized the softwood lumber dispute, for example.
But Derbez acknowledges the challenge of dealing with the United States in small steps and gestures rather than with a visionary plan, and he tempers his hope with pragmatic assessment.
"One of the things you need to learn to do is never mix your personal feelings and concerns as part of the public reality in the world," he said.
"I would never do that. It is very clear to me that you have to be very realistic about what can be done."
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