ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the implications of the border for Mexican public policy and Mexican-United States relations. The border region's growing importance reflects exogenous and endogenous influences. The border context influences the way that both Mexico City and Washington perceive problems and formulate policies. Ecological problems along the Mexican-United States border center on air, water, and hazardous waste. Tijuana sewage and Sonora/Arizona sulfur dioxide reflect two of the border region's most serious ecological problems at present, but threats to groundwater on both sides of the border may be even more serious in the near future. The border economy is characterized by a bewildering array of exchanges generically defined as "border transactions." The conventional border transaction features Americans crossing south to buy booze, gasoline, or artisan wares, and Mexicans coming north to purchase clothes, appliances, and luxury goods. Mexico's overall economic problems have certainly ramified onto the border region, but the border economy has fared relatively better than the larger national economy.
