Fox tells Seattle business leaders his country will push free trade

SEATTLE — Mexican President Vicente Fox promised U.S. business executives Thursday that his country will be a valuable part of free trade advancements on the continent and wants to be competitive but in a positive way.

Speaking over breakfast to about 40 executives and government officials, Fox also tried to smooth worries about intellectual property rights and worker safety in his country. And he urged the giant Starbucks chain to work more closely with Mexican coffee growers.

Mexico wants to be competitive with the U.S. — not a competitor against it, he said. "That's the heart of our conversations with President Bush's administration," Fox said.

Michael Casey, Starbucks' chief financial officer, said the company hopes to add about 100 stores in Mexico over the next 18 months, and up to 500 in the next five years.

"It's our most aggressive growth track around the globe," Casey said.

The meeting was part of Fox's three-state swing through the West amid an extended debate across the U.S. over illegal immigration. The Mexican president also visited Utah and was heading to California later Thursday to meet with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

In a speech to dinner guests Wednesday night, Fox outlined a five-point position on immigration, saying Mexico does not support undocumented migration and must expand economic growth so that migration is "(no) longer a necessity, but a free will decision."

Fox's speech came as the U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly to limit debate on election-year immigration legislation. The maneuver cleared the way for final Senate passage later this week of a bill that calls for tougher border security as well as an eventual chance at citizenship for millions of men and women in this country illegally.

Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire, a Democrat, supports such a path to citizenship and said a robust guest worker program is needed to help Washington state farmers.

"This great state and this great nation (were) built by those immigrants and continue to be built by immigrants today," Gregoire said Wednesday.

Fox also toured an orchard in the agriculture-rich Yakima Valley, telling hundreds of farmworkers that he believes a solution on immigration is near.