Office of the Historian

152. Summary of Conclusions of a Policy Review Committee Meeting1

Washington, January 19, 1979, 10:30 a.m.–noon

SUBJECT

  • PRC—Mexico

PARTICIPANTS

    • State
    • Deputy Secretary Warren Christopher
    • Matthew Nimetz, Counselor
    • Amb. Viron Vaky, Assistant Secretary for Inter-American Affairs
    • Ambassador Patrick Lucey, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico

  • OSD

    • Michael Armacost, Dep. Assistant Secretary for East Asia/Pacific and Inter American Affairs

  • Treasury

    • C. Fred Bergsten, Assistant Secretary for International Affairs

  • Justice

    • Mike Egan, Associate Attorney General
    • Doris Meissner, Deputy Associate Attorney General

  • JCS

    • Lt. Gen. William Smith, Assistant to the Chairman, JCS

  • Office for Trade Negotiations

    • Ambassador Alan Wolff, Deputy to Ambassador Strauss
    • Steve Lande, Assistant Special Trade Representative

  • Agriculture

    • Dr. Quentin West, Special Asst. for International Scientific and Technical Cooperation

  • Labor

    • Secretary Ray Marshall
    • Charles Knapp, Special Assistant to the Secretary

  • Commerce

    • Frank Weil, Assistant Secretary for Industry and Trade Administration

  • Energy

    • Harry Bergold, Assistant Secretary for International Affairs
    • Les Goldman, Deputy Asst. Secretary for Policy and Evaluation

  • CIA

    • Admiral Turner
    • Hans Heymann, National Intelligence Officer for Political Economy

  • OMB

    • John White, Deputy Director of OMB

  • Domestic Affairs

    • Kitty Schirmer, Associate Director Domestic Policy Staff
    • Frank White, Associate Director Domestic Policy Staff

  • AID

    • Abelardo Valdez, Assistant Administrator for Latin America and Caribbean

  • OSTP

    • Dr. Frank Press, Science and Technology Advisor

  • White House

    • Dr. Brzezinski
    • Stu Eizenstat

  • NSC

    • Ambassador Henry Owen
    • Robert Pastor

SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS

1. Science and Technology. Frank Press briefed on the status of discussions with the Mexicans on cooperation in science and technology (S&T). A US team will be meeting soon with their Mexican counterparts to agree on communique language which stresses our desire to re-invigorate the US-Mexican S&T agreement of 1972,2 to agree on new cooperative programs on arid crop development and on housing, and [Page 344] to place all existing S&T agreements under a single umbrella, which will be coordinated on our side, first by State and NSF and later by the new Foundation for International Technological Collaboration. We have been careful not to raise their expectations on program funding. Press agreed to circulate to appropriate agencies a paper summarizing the agreement.

2. Trade. Alan Wolff noted that STR has paid special attention to Mexico because it is warranted by our current trading relationship and by future prospects. The primary US objectives have been to encourage Mexican accession to the GATT, which Mexico has apparently just announced, and completion of a trade agreement under the MTN. We will demonstrate our interest in these topics by a reference in the communique, and the President might raise them with Lopez Portillo, depending on the status of negotiations. We have made a significant proposal to them in the MTN, and we await their response. There was considerable skepticism in the group on the utility of sectoral arrangements, but STR will complete a short paper on that for the next PRC meeting. STR also cautioned against packaging issues as Lopez Portillo has suggested because it would be detrimental to our interests. The idea for examining macro-economic questions associated with the long-term complementarity of our economies was broached, and Treasury subsequently agreed to work on this issue in the context of the trade paper.

3. Undocumented Workers. There was disagreement within the group on what course to follow, and that is reflected in the memorandum attached at Tab A.3 However, all agreed that no firm decision and no announcements should be made by the Executive Branch prior to the President’s conversations with Lopez Portillo.

4. Border Issues. Justice plans to have the fence at the border rebuilt after your trip. On the issue of the border management reorganization proposal, the Mexicans have appreciated our consultations, and have informed us that their concern is with the substance of our undocumented workers policy, rather than the mechanism. With regard to cooperation on border issues, the US has shown an eagerness to work within the context of the consultative mechanism which has not been reciprocated. Ambassador Lucey suggested that we try to organize our four border Governors into a group, using Title V funding, although he recognized that this idea would still face the recurrent dilemma that Mexico manages border issues from Mexico City while we do it at a local level.

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5. Next Meeting. The next PRC meeting will deal with trade and energy issues and how to organize the US government to negotiate and manage US-Mexican relations.

  1. Source: Carter Library, National Security Council, Institutional Files, 1977–1981, Box 73, PRC 091 Mexico 2/6/79. Confidential. The meeting was held in the Roosevelt Room at the White House.↩
  2. The Agreement for Scientific and Technical Cooperation of June 15, 1972.↩
  3. Not attached, but a copy is in the Carter Library, Staff Material, North/South, Pastor, Country, Box 29, Mexico, 1/17–1/31/79.↩