The Arizona-Mexico Commission was founded in March 1959 as the Arizona-Mexico West Trade Commission by Governor Paul J. Fannin and his Sonoran counterpart, Alvaro Obregon Tapia, at the University of Arizona's first Arizona-Sonora International Conference on Regional Development.
Two years later, in July 1974, in Guaymas, Sonora, these committees met formally at the first Plenary Session between the AMC and its sister organization, the Comisión Sonora-Arizona.