<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><h1 style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 24pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-weight: bold; ">Trade top priority for Mexican front-runner<o:p></o:p></h1><h1 style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-weight: bold; font-size: 24pt; "><span style="font-size: 8pt; "><a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/apr/17/trade-top-priority-for-mexican-front-runner/" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; ">http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/apr/17/trade-top-priority-for-mexican-front-runner/</a><o:p></o:p></span></h1><h2 style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-weight: bold; ">Bloody war on drugs takes back seat<o:p></o:p></h2><p class="left" style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; ">By <span class="fn"><a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/staff/guy-taylor/" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; ">Guy Taylor</a></span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="left" style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><span class="org">The Washington Times</span><o:p></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; ">QUERETARO, Mexico — The front-runner in Mexico’s presidential race has attracted throngs of supporters among elite and ordinary citizens alike with his calls to boost his country’s trade relationships with Canada and the U.S. — a refocusing effort his staffers call “NAFTA 2.0” — and to tamp down the drug violence that has muddied Mexico’s reputation.<o:p></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; ">For Enrique Pena Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party — and apparently the majority of the Mexican electorate — the economic ties that bind the U.S. and Mexico “need to grow.”<o:p></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; ">“If we take into consideration what’s happening in the world and the way that competition among countries today is being built by blocs, I believe we have a great opportunity to make a very strong bloc in North America,” he said in an exclusive interview with The Washington Times.<o:p></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; ">“I will work on building infrastructure that can make the whole region of North America more competitive.”<o:p></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; ">His message may sound unusual, if not naive, in a country where the news is dominated by reports about drug gangs, corrupt cops and the deaths of nearly 50,000 people in drug-related violence during recent years.<o:p></o:p></p><div style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/multimedia/image/mexicojpg_734610/" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; "><span style="color: blue; text-decoration: none; "><img border="0" width="220" height="122" id="Picture_x0020_1" alt="Description: http://media.washtimes.com/media/image/2012/04/17/mexico_s220x122.jpg?b0473a091445b0f358216e196e6d902936616d47" src="cid:image001.jpg@01CD1D49.4EC565B0"></span></a><o:p></o:p></div><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; ">Headline stories about U.S.-Mexico relations often refer to an aid program known as the Merida Initiative, which has received $1.6 billion in drug war support from Washington since 2008.<o:p></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; ">Mr. Pena Nieto calls for establishing an elite police force to fight organized crime and an “independent czar” who would focus on the victims of public corruption.<o:p></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; ">But he is bent on shifting the narrative away from the illicit drug trade and toward a collective realization of the potential for growth in the legal economic flow between Mexico and the U.S. — a message that resonates among rank-and-file voters seeking jobs and business owners seeking new markets.<o:p></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; ">A centrist politician with boyish good looks and charm, Mr. Pena Nieto has built a big lead in the polls ahead of the July 1 election. If he wins, which many here say is inevitable, his plan is to channel that charm toward the United States.<o:p></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; ">“We have an opportunity to go further in our relationship with the United States and Canada, but especially with the United States,” he said.<o:p></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "><strong>‘Private-sector participation’</strong><o:p></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; ">With Canada as the No. 1 U.S. trading partner, Mexico rivals China for the No. 2 spot — ahead of Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom and Brazil.<o:p></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; ">Mexico is the third-largest source of U.S. imports and the second-largest destination for U.S. exports, translating into an estimated 6 million U.S. jobs dependent on trade with the southern neighbor.<o:p></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; ">The bulk of Mexico’s trade involves manufacturing by U.S. outfits tapping lower-cost labor, but Mr. Pena Nieto envisions expanded opportunities for foreign investment in other sectors — specifically energy.<o:p></o:p></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; ">A good place to start, he said, would be to reform Mexico’s declining state oil monopoly, PEMEX, to“allow the private sector to participate in exploration, production and refining.”<o:p></o:p></p><div><br></div></body></html>