North American Integration

President Obama’s summit with the presidents of Mexico and Canada was a missed opportunity to relaunch the free trade agreement between the three countries — which just turned 20 — but it produced a plan that, despite having passed almost unnoticed in the media, could have a very positive impact on the economic and cultural integration of North America.

Although much of the media coverage of the summit on Wednesday in Toluca, Mexico focused on cooperation agreements on energy and security, perhaps the most important were the conversations on Mexico’s plan to dramatically increase its flow of students to U.S. universities, and on joint scientific research and innovation centers in the next four years.

According to Mexican officials, during a bilateral meeting between Obama and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto on the sidelines of the summit, the Mexican president showed President Obama a sheet with a graphical explanation of his plan to increase the number of Mexican students in U.S. universities from 13,800 today to 100,000 by 2018.

If Mexico realizes its new program of student mobility to American universities, it could have a huge impact on the links between the U.S. and Mexico. The plan, a copy of which I was sent electronically, shows that Mexico plans to increase the number of students in U.S. universities to 27,000 this year, 46,000 in 2015, 64,500 in 2016, 82,000 in 2017 and 100,000 in 2018 — that is, a total of 319,500 students over the next four years. The Mexican plan, called Project 100,000, also aims to increase the number of U.S. students going to Mexico from the current 4,100 to 50,000 in 2018.

The current level of student exchanges between Mexico and Washington is woefully low. While China has 194,000 students at U.S. universities, India 100,000, South Korea 72,000 and Saudi Arabia 34,000, Mexico, with 13,800, is near the bottom of the list according to official U.S. figures. Even tiny Taiwan, Japan and Vietnam have more students in the U.S. than Mexico, or any other Latin American country.

But if the Project 100,000 plan is realized it will be one of the most ambitious of its kind. Obama announced a plan called 100,000 Strong in the Americas, which includes increasing the number of U.S. students in Latin America and Canada to 100,000. Brazil, in turn, has launched a Science Without Borders plan, which aims to send 100,000 Brazilian graduates to postgraduate programs, particularly in science and engineering, worldwide. And Chile has launched its own plan to send 6,000 young people abroad each year for graduate study.

Student mobility, especially that of foreign students to U.S. universities, is considered a key factor in helping countries become more competitive. Virtually all major rankings of the best universities in the world agree that the centers of higher learning in the United States remain at the top in scientific and technical investigation.

Mexican officials say they plan to pay for the enormous increase in student exchanges with public and private funds.

Sources close to the meeting in Toluca told me that during bilateral meetings, Mexico also sought help from Washington to facilitate visa procedures and reduce the costs of studies for Mexican students. In addition, to stimulate an increase in U.S. students in Mexico — there are fewer Americans studying in Mexico than in Costa Rica, Brazil and Argentina — Mexico has asked Washington to modify the “travel alerts” issued by the State Department to make clear that there are many violence-free areas in Mexico, Mexican officials say.

My opinion: It’s truly a shame that Obama, Peña Nieto and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper did not taken advantage of the 20th anniversary of the free trade agreement between the three countries to relaunch the North American trade bloc.

For example, they could have announced plans to remove all barriers to trade and service and to streamline supply chains of multinational companies, to be able to compete with China more effectively. However, the Obama administration has decided to focus its energy on the creation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a much broader economic bloc including much of Asia, as well as Mexico, Chile, Peru and Canada.

But if Mexico carries out its plan for student mobility to American universities, it will be the beginning of a cultural phenomenon that could have a huge impact on the links between the U.S. and Mexico, and will form the basis of a much deeper North American integration.