Mexican public-finance expert makes the case for a borderless North America
By Gordon Brown
Lawrence Today magazine, Fall 2004
It’s really too bad that the name New Mexico is already taken. Listening
to José Luis Romero-Hicks, ’79, one realizes that there is a
new Mexico and he has been and will continue to be a major player in
it.
Back on campus for his 25th reunion, Romero-Hicks tells the story of
how he came to attend Lawrence: “I came to Lawrence because a Lawrence
Spanish major went on a term-abroad program to a city by the name of Guanajuato, a
university city in central
Mexico, and this young woman ended up marrying my brother. At the time,
I was an exchange student in Denver, Colorado, and about to graduate
from high school. They got me interested in Lawrence, and I applied and
got
in.”
Today, his brother, Juan Carlos Romero, is governor of the state of Guanajuato,
and the erstwhile Lawrence Spanish major, Appleton native Frances “Faffy” Siekman
de Romero, ’74, is first lady. (Guanajuato’s previous governor
was Vicente Fox, now president of Mexico.)
A government major at Lawrence, Romero-Hicks earned a master’s in
social science/economics at Southern Oregon University and a law degree
from the University of Guanajuato, where his thesis was on social justice
and state intervention in the economy.
His career has included serving as planning director for Guanajuato State
University at age 23, director general of revenue in Guanajuato State,
commercial counselor to the Mexican embassy in India, economic attaché at
the embassy in Japan, head of housing policy in the Ministry of Social
Development, and finance minister in Guanajuato State under Governor Fox.
Most recently, he served for three years as president and CEO of Bancomext,
which is Mexico’s import/export bank and trade-promotion agency,
as well as a commercial bank specializing in dollar transactions, with
a program totaling nearly $7 billion a year. At this writing, he is opening
his own law firm, Romero-Hicks & Galindo; planning the launch of an
investment-banking firm; serving as a consultant to the president of Mexico
on the work of a National Convention for Public Finance; and providing
weekly commentaries for two national radio stations.
“The older you get, the more difficult it is to start new projects,” he
says, “but I think I’m at the right age and the right time
to set up my firms, and then, in five or six years, I would like to go
back into public life, most likely in my home state, quite possibly by
running for mayor of Guanajuato City.”
North and south of the border
In the meantime, issues of international trade continue to be one of his
concerns, and he holds well-informed opinions on relations between the
United States and Mexico.
"In order for North America to be competitive with other world economies,” he
says, “we have to be prepared to have a borderless economic region.
Otherwise, other regions — which are becoming borderless — will
become more competitive, and we will lose markets, and when you lose markets,
that goes along with losing jobs. When economies become insular, when everybody
establishes barriers to trade, you become the owner of your own poverty,
because you lose markets.”
Foremost among the newly borderless regions and Romero-Hicks’s favorite
example of success is the European Union, which in May added ten new members,
for a total of 25. Pointing out that this year marks the tenth anniversary
of NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, he notes that Presidents
Bush and Fox recently signed what is called the Partnership for Prosperity.
"A great deal of thought needs to be given to what the term partner
means,” he
says. “In Mexico, unfortunately, I think there is a justified view
that, in general, Mexicans are not viewed as partners. I was once asked
the question, what would I recommend for policymakers, and my answer has
been very simple: whatever you have done with Canada, do with Mexico. You
cannot have a North American Free Trade Agreement with a first-tier type
of partner and a second-tier type of partner, and that is why we have to
look to Europe.
“Despite the problems that Europe has had — 25 languages, hundreds
of cultures, all sorts of borders, different legal systems, different educational
systems, and a history of war — it is possible today for a Spanish
attorney to practice law in another 24 countries. In our systems, sometimes
attorneys cannot practice multijurisdictionally across their own countries.
The great European teaching is that you can have a partnership by learning
to recognize differences, rather than saying that all the rules have to
be the same.”
Given the need for the North American nations to be competitive in a world
market, Romeo-Hicks regards the European Union as the best example of what
is possible and says, “When I ask my friends in Mexico, “Do
you think we will ever have a common currency?,” they say, “You’re
crazy. We will never take our national heroes off the coins.” Of
the 25 European nations, 12 are now using a common currency.
"In terms of human coexistence, Europeans are setting the trends. I am
aware that we are much more territorial in the Americas, but I am also aware
that they are much more nationalistic in Europe. If they could overcome
their fears and foes and be constructive, recognize differences, establish
a European parliament, create a common currency, and so forth, it proves
that it is possible.
“The bottom line is competitiveness, and these things need to be done.
Since they are going to take a long time, that’s why we have to do them
fast. I don’t envision a transition of opening borders for people
in the near future, but the fact is that I also do not envision that 200
years from now there will be no open borders.”
To its side of the partnership, Mexico brings a growing and changing economy.
In 2002, the total of Mexican exports was $162 billion, of which 90 percent
came to the U.S., although the nature of those exports has changed, according
to Romero-Hicks.
"There used to be the misconception that Mexico was primarily a petroleum
country. That may have been true in the 1980s, but today petroleum represents
less than ten percent of total exports,” he says.
"Since Mexico is a third-world country, one might expect that its exports
would be either commodities or primary goods, but in fact over 80 percent
of Mexico’s exports are
manufactured goods, including automobiles — all Chevrolet Suburbans
are made in Guanajuato, even the ones for Japan with the steering wheel
on the right.
"Mexico has grown very fast, and it needs to grow much faster,” he
concludes.
The Lawrence Difference
Romero-Hicks recalls that, in preparation for the 25th reunion of the Class
of 1979, he was sent a questionnaire that concluded with the question, “What
has been the Lawrence Difference?” — to which he had a ready
answer.
"I can honestly tell you that, if I had not had my training at Lawrence,
I do not think I would have done what I have done. After Lawrence, I did
graduate work in economics and went to law school and, to tell the truth,
those programs were quite simple
for me.”
He recalls with gratitude a government department with professors the likes
of Chong-Do Hah, Mojmir Povolny, and Minoo Adenwalla, who was his advisor
and mentor, and also mentions Professor Emeritus of Education Kenneth Sager, ’39.
"When I was first here,” he says, “I did not speak English
as well as I do now, and I took a Freshman Seminar with Professor Sager.
I
remember spending probably eight hours with him dissecting a paper that
I had written. Where else but Lawrence would a professor take eight hours
to explain to you why you got a low grade on a paper?”
As part of his Lawrence education, he took part in two special programs
that foreshadowed his future interest in things global: the Slavic Summer
Program in the Soviet Union with Professor of Slavic Languages and Literature
George Smalley and the Associated Colleges of the Midwest India
Studies program at Pune University, led by the aforementioned advisor and mentor.
“Did Professor Adenwalla suggest that you go to India?” the interviewer
asked, in conclusion.
"No, Professor Adenwalla insisted that I go to India. And,
later, that got me a job.”