The third in-person U.S.-Mexico Forum, hosted by the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies at the UC San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy on April 29-30, gathered Mexican and U.S. scholars, practitioners and other experts to chart a course for the binational relationship between the U.S. and Mexico. 

Each year, participants gather to discuss the latest developments in migration, security and public health, trade and economy, energy and sustainable development, strategic diplomacy and more. The participants then made their recommendations for achievements beneficial to both the U.S. and Mexico in these fields, building upon the reportpublished after the first forum. A report from this year’s forum is forthcoming.

The event’s closed-door sessions discussed salient topics such as the countries’ respective presidential candidates’ economic and trade policies; how artificial intelligence could shape North America; reshoring in North America; and binational energy relations and climate change. 

“The forum’s aim is to encourage cooperation between both countries and to avoid, as much as possible, the frictions that can emerge in a relationship as intense, complex and asymmetric as the one between the United States and Mexico,” said Rafael Fernández de Castro, center director. “We cannot leave the processes of bilateral integration to the whims of market forces or simple fate — both federal governments should make a conscious and deliberate effort to deepen cooperation.”