September 29, 2003 - Buffet (Jimmy - not the Terminator’s financial advisor) laments in song about his lost shaker of salt and his blown-out flip-flop. The situation in Margaritaville was bad enough but it just got worse. Vincente Fox – you may remember him from the La Cucaracha Fiesta in Crawford – has just announced that the Mexican government is going to stop exporting Tequila in bulk for bottling in the United States. When last he visited the Ranch in Crawford the discussions between the two Presidents were hailed by the Administration as ushering in a new era in relations between the two countries.

It looks like it has. Before he became a provincial governor Fox was President of Coca Cola-Mexico. He knows about the beverage bottling industry. While the Mexican government claims that the restriction is intended to secure the quality of the country’s gold-plated export the result would be to move a substantial number of jobs in the bottling industry south of the Rio Grande. Don’t laugh, these are good, well paying jobs on their way out of the United States. Worse American bottling industry experts say that until the Mexican bottling industry tools up and trains a workforce there will be a big Tequila shortage in the US. That is why there is a panic in Margaritaville.

That new era in US-Mexican relations was supposed to generate a new cooperation between Washington and Mexico City. It hasn’t. There was supposed to be a cooperative effort to control illegal migration from south to north It hasn’t happened. When George was casting about for partners to join his Coalition of the Willing – Mexico was not willing. Now this. The brewing Tequila Trade War is just one more ludicrous example of George’s squandering the feeling of international good will that this country once enjoyed.

Once Jimmy finds his lost shaker of salt and mends his flip-flop he is going to have to hop a plane for Cancun to pour the tequila. Thanks, George.