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U.S. Department of State Office of the Spokesman Press Statement

Press Statement by James P. Rubin, Spokesman
December 21, 1998

Signature of Firefighting Agreement with Mexico

An interagency team under the direction of Ambassador Vonya B. McCann, U.S. Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy, has concluded a Memorandum of Understanding with Mexican counterparts to facilitate efforts to respond to forest fires and other emergency situations in the border region. This agreement is the latest in a series of arrangements between two countries to ensure effective and efficient use of radio spectrum along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The Memorandum of Understanding will enhance the ability of both countries to protect lives and property in the border region by ensuring that the equipment used by firefighters and other emergency response teams to communicate in an emergency will operate free from harmful interference. To achieve this objective, the United States and Mexico have agreed to reserve certain radio frequencies in the border region for firefighting and other emergency response activities. These frequencies correspond to those programmed into the radio equipment used by the United States National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) in Boise, Idaho for firefighting. As part of this agreement, Mexico will be able to borrow radio equipment from NIFC for emergency response.

The Memorandum of Understanding was signed by Clyde Thompson, Deputy Chief for Business Operations, U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, and William E. Kennard, Chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC), as well as by Jorge Nicolin Fisher, Mexican Under Secretary of Communications, and Javier Lozano, Chairman of the Mexican Federal Telecommunications Commission. The full text of the Memorandum of Understanding is available from the FCC’s International Bureau Internet site at http://www.fcc.gov/ib/pnd/agree.

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