Possible Trump Mexico envoy floats ideas for better relations, including “smart wall”

The business leader expected to top the shortlist for President-elect Donald Trump’s ambassador to Mexico has launched a broad effort to promote stronger U.S.-Mexico ties and reassure leaders after Trump vowed unilateral action that would upend relations between the two countries, the Washington Post reports.

Al Zapanta, the head of the U.S.-Mexico Chamber of Commerce and chief executive of natural-gas development company Paz Resources, is launching what he calls the North American Working Group at a meeting of business leaders Friday in The Woodlands, Tex. The group is an assembly of corporate executives and former policymakers in the United States and Mexico who will study and craft policy proposals in eight broad areas, such as immigration and trade. They plan to present their conclusions to Trump in the spring.

Zapanta said that he is in touch with Trump’s son Donald Jr. and senior Trump adviser Stephen K. Bannon as the effort moves forward “in parallel to” the official transition. But Zapanta said the president-elect was not sending a representative to the first summit.