The United States is Mexico’s number-one trading partner. Last year alone, the two countries conducted a total of $580 billion in trade in goods and services. A million people cross the border legally every day. And yet former President Vicente Fox, a former leader of Mexico’s conservative National Action Party, seems intent on jeopardizing our close ties to our friend and ally to the north.
President Fox has developed a bizarre obsession with President Trump over the last two years. More than half of his recent tweets are disparaging criticisms directed at the U.S. president. Just a few weeks ago, he teamed up with an American progressive media outlet, Super Deluxe, to release a profanity-filled video rant, the second he has produced on their YouTube channel within the last few months.
As President of Mexico, Fox did away with a long-standing foreign policy practice known as the Estrada Doctrine, under which the Mexican government refrained from publicly judging the actions of foreign government on internal political matters, even those that affected Mexico. The Fox administration replaced this with the Castañeda Doctrine, which took a much more assertive and interventionist approach towards Mexico’s foreign relations.
It backfired, leading to a series of much-publicized foreign policy blunders, including spats with Cuba and heavy criticism from other Latin American countries, not unlike those of which Mr. Fox accuses Trump. Fox’s successor had to abandon that doctrine, going back to the old ways.
Sadly, these attitudes are not reserved to President Fox. The Mexican right, rather than celebrating the fact that a like-minded individual has been elected to their north, has instead been whipped up into a jingoistic, anti-American fervor. They are trying to gain an advantage by accusing the current center-left President, Enrique Peña Nieto, of being too soft on Trump.
Far from this, however, Nieto has in fact developed a remarkably poor relationship with Trump, with Trump reportedly lambasting him for his lack of cooperation on tackling the flow of illegal drugs into the United States during a phone call between the two leaders earlier this year.
If Fox genuinely wants to stand up for Mexico and its people, he could do so in a more serious and dignified manner. He could reach out to his many contacts within the U.S. Congress on both sides of the aisle and urge them to work with President Trump on reforming the United States’ legal immigration system, tackling U.S. objections regarding trade between the two countries and boosting U.S. investment in Mexico. He could also work with his allies in the National Action Party to put pressure on the Mexican government to act in a more collaborative and productive manner in its dealings with the United States.
It is imperative that we understand the United States is the senior partner in our relationship and that it is important to accommodate their reasonable concerns about border security and the trade deficit.
It is in the interest of both countries to put the current dispute behind them as soon as possible and work together for a stronger and more prosperous North America. To make Mexico great, we must make America great again.
Eduardo Rivero Puente is a conservative activist and businessman from Mexico City. He is currently the executive editor to The Liberty Conservative and was formerly the Chair of México para Donald Trump.
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