AMLO and Biden: The Economic Integration of America 4:26
(CNN Spanish) — A trilateral summit meeting between Canada, the United States and Mexico this week put several pledges on the table to work towards a more united region, according to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Presidents Joe Biden and Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
The summit of the so-called “Three Amigos” – the United States, Mexico and Canada – is the second since Joe Biden became President of the United States in 2021, since it was not held during the administration of his predecessor Donald Trump, there was no tripartite summit and the last one was held in 2016.
The meeting between Biden, AMLO and Trudeau left several unforgettable scenes, such as the arrival of the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of Canada at Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA), where they were received by their Mexican counterpart.
The meeting also left a touch of cordiality among the three leaders. According to Gerónimo Gutiérrez Fernández, former Mexican ambassador to the United States, there was “a good political climate for the summit” to seek dialogue despite some disagreements over cooperation.
“There’s always the question of whether these summits are good for something… I believe that the summits should happen and you don’t necessarily have to expect great results from them,” Gutiérrez Fernández said on CNN.
“However, it is much more difficult to get things done between the governments of these three countries without these summits,” he added.
The issues discussed were not new compared to previous meetings, but continue to emphasize the needs of the North American region in addressing pressing issues such as migration, cross-border security and drug trafficking, trade and economic cooperation, and the clean energy transition.
Biden commits to that with Mexico and Canada 2:44
migration
One of the main topics of the summit was of course the issue of immigration, which is putting the US southern border in crisis as thousands of migrants from different countries in the region and the world want to arrive via Mexico.
“Our entire hemisphere is witnessing unprecedented levels of migration more than at any time in history,” President Joe Biden said Tuesday along with Trudeau and AMLO. Because of this, Biden said one of the goals is to comply with the policy of opening legal channels so that migrants from Nicaragua, Cuba, Haiti and Venezuela can legally enter the United States.
This Tuesday, Kristina Rosales, a spokeswoman for the US State Department, reported that one of the priorities of this summit is to bet on including Canada in a mechanism that will make it possible to handle the growing flows of migrants who want to reach the United States relieve Mexico, Portal reported.
In an interview with Portal, Rosales said a potential trilateral deal with Canada would help thousands of people migrate through more legal routes without risking their lives, often at the hands of traffickers.
“Canada has its own specific refugee and migration programs and it is precisely one of the talks that are being held this afternoon (Tuesday) on how to manage this migratory flow at the trilateral level,” Rosales is quoted as saying by Portal .
Finally, at a bilateral meeting, López Obrador told Biden to pressure his country’s Congress to pass immigration reform to regulate the immigration status of millions of Mexicans residing in the United States.
Ortiz-Mena: Mexico is North America and you should see it like this 2:45
supply chains and imports
Here, too, the economic question was in the foreground. After years of closing borders due to Covid-19, North American leaders considered reactivating supply chains and replacing imports from the region, considered one of the richest and most dynamic in the world. The aim of these agreements is increasing self-sufficiency in the region.
“To boost regional competitiveness, the three countries will seek to forge stronger regional supply chains and encourage targeted investment in key future industries such as semiconductors and batteries for electric vehicles,” the governments said in a joint statement.
“We agree to strengthen our economic and trade ties, for which purpose a Joint Committee for Planning and Import Substitution in North America will be created,” Lopez Obrador said on Tuesday.
“The idea is that each country proposes a group of four specialists who are knowledgeable about supply chains to “convince business people, workers and public officials from the three governments of the importance, the importance of unity in North America and commit to a union in all of North America to look forward to on the American continent,” said AMLO.
Analysts point out that some important deals have been reached on economic issues that will benefit the three parties in terms of jobs and investment.
“The export sector is crucial. We have to remember that if there’s one sector that pays well, it’s manufacturing…they’re formal jobs that also have all the perks,” said Carlos López Jones, director of economic and financial trends.
Meanwhile, profits from these deals will also go to the US, which López said “needs a place where they can cheaply manufacture all the products they need when China’s doors shut tomorrow. We need a better place, we need to be important trading partners. And the same thing is happening with Canada: Canada has made a lot of investments in Mexico… so we’re a very interesting market.”
The President of the United States, Joe Biden; Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador and Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during a message to the media as part of North American Leaders’ 2023 at the National Palace January 10, 2023 in Mexico City. (Credit: Hector Vivas/Getty Images)
drug trafficking
One of the concerns of the three countries, especially the US, is the influx of opioids into the US, particularly fentanyl, a synthetic drug that has caused more than 100,000 deaths in that country, making action against it urgent.
Earlier, at a bilateral meeting between Biden and AMLO, leaders discussed security cooperation to track down drug traffickers and disrupt supply chains of chemicals used to make fentanyl, according to the White House.
Two Mexican officials, who spoke to Portal on condition of anonymity, said Monday that the security cooperation plan requires Mexico to reduce smuggling of fentanyl across the border in exchange for the United States reducing the number of weapons going into Mexico enter.
“In the case of drugs, it’s not marijuana anymore, it’s not poppy anymore, it’s not just cocaine anymore, now it’s fentanyl and chemicals that are the most dangerous and harmful because they cause a lot of deaths. So, we are working on it in an organized manner,” López Obrador said of the fight against drugs that affects the two countries.
Another day at the summit
A bilateral summit between Mexico and Canada is expected this Wednesday, where they will discuss other interesting issues such as migration, environment and clean energy.
Additionally, following the summit, the three countries will review standards for the development of hydrogen as a clean energy source, they said in a joint statement Tuesday, in which they pledged to “act quickly” to implement clean energy solutions, vehicle production to increase and enable the introduction of zero emissions and transition to cleaner fuels, they said.
— With information from Mario González and Gabriela Frías of CNN and Portal