Border Environmental Cooperation Commission

The Border Environmental Cooperation Commission (BECC), a binational organization created in 1993 as a side agreement to the NORTH AMERICAN FREE TRADE AGREEMENT (NAFTA), helps states, localities, and the private sector develop and find financing for environment INFRASTRUC­TURE projects along the U.S.-Mexico border. The BECC, which identifies, evaluates, and certifies affordable envi­ronment projects with the goal of improving the quality of life for citizens along the border, is an outgrowth of ideas put forth by UCLA urban planning professor Raul Hinjosa and others. The idea for the BECC was adopted by the Bush Administration in 1992 and superseded the 1983 Agreement on Cooperation for the Protection and Improvement of the Environment on the Border Area (the 1983 La Paz Agreement).

The Commission maintains offices in both El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, and is directed by a 10­member BOARD OF DIRECTORS, with five board members from each country. The Director of the U.S. Environmen­tal Protection Agency is an ex officio member of the BECC board. Decisions of the board are based on a majority vote, thus requiring support from members representing both countries. A major role of the BECC is certifying projects for financing by the NORTH AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK (NAD Bank). By 1998 the BECC had certified 16 projects, mostly water-treatment and municipal solid-waste proj­ects. Many more projects were yet to be addressed, and financing problems, particularly for Mexican municipali­ties lacking authority to enter into public works financing and taxation agreements, limited the ability of the BECC and NAD Bank to address long-term problems.

Many U.S.-Mexico border problems stem from rapid growth of the MAQUILADORAS in Mexico. After the PESO CRI­SIS (1994–95), the reduced cost of Mexican labor for inter­national firms and NAFTA increased access to the U.S. market and overwhelmed an already weak infrastructure. Although the BECC was created to address problems asso­ciated with border-area growth, it had limited impact in the 1990s.