The president of USA, Joe Biden, received the leaders of Canada and Mexico at the first North American summit in five years, a meeting aimed at revitalizing regional cooperation, but overshadowed by the “US buy” agenda and migration.
Biden met separately with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and then a meeting was held between the three.
The goal of the talks is to find common ground between the three neighbors united by the free trade agreement between the United States, Mexico and Canada (T-MEC), which influences some US $ 1.5 trillion a year in North American trade.
However, differences over the auto industry, “American buyout” policies and a Mexican energy bill weighed heavily on the summit.
The United States and Canada also came to a standstill over a Biden administration proposal for tax credits on US-made electric vehicles, which Ottawa says violates trade agreements.
While it may be difficult to make major breakthroughs, Biden expects progress on some of the thorniest challenges with the United States’ two biggest neighbors, such as easing migration pressures, reducing trade frictions, recovering from the global pandemic and better competing with China.
“Our North American vision for the future is based on our shared strengths,” said Biden, seated at a long table that allowed leaders to keep their distance in accordance with the COVID-19 protocol.
“We have to end the pandemic and take decisive action to stop the climate crisis. We have to drive an inclusive economic recovery. We have to handle the challenge of an unprecedented migration in our hemisphere ”, he added.
Among the tangible achievements expected from the North American Leaders Summit are agreements on new limits on methane and donations of the COVID-19 vaccine, according to senior government officials.
The deals stem from a push by Biden to revive the so-called “Three Friends,” a task force abandoned by his predecessor Donald Trump.
Reestablishing ties with Mexico and Canada is also part of Biden’s effort to turn the page into the Trump era, moving away from his predecessor’s strident individual approach to a more collaborative style.
Trump had an especially tense deal with Trudeau, imposing tariffs on some Canadian products and sometimes launching public insults at the Canadian prime minister.
Almost ten months after taking office, Biden could use a diplomatic triumph. It faces declining public approval ratings and is trying to control inflation and supply chain problems while dealing with a record number of migrants arriving at the US-Mexico border.
Biden is under internal pressure to curb the sharp increase in migrant crossings, which Republican opponents have criticized as an “open border” policy, and needs Mexico’s cooperation.
In brief comments to reporters, Biden, who had his first in-person meeting with López Obrador since taking office in January, cited migration among the main issues they were addressing, but did not elaborate.
López Obrador thanked the US president for proposals that could improve the status of many longtime immigrants in the United States and urged US lawmakers to support such a measure. But the fate of any Biden immigration initiative remained uncertain in Congress.
Emissions and vaccine agreements
US officials expect the three North American countries to agree to cut methane emissions in their oil and gas sectors by 60-75% by 2030, as countries work to curb this potent greenhouse gas.
Canada and Mexico will also announce that they are going to donate millions of doses of vaccines to other countries, which the United States had initially lent them, said one of the officials who did not want to be mentioned.
In addition, the leaders will pledge to ban the importation of products made with forced labor, a policy of the Biden government towards China. Western activists and politicians accuse China of using forced labor in a province, an accusation that the world’s second largest economy denies.
López Obrador said during the meeting that economic integration would be the best way to face “China’s productive and commercial expansion.” He added that they could lead to an “unacceptable disproportion” in the economic field that “would keep alive the temptation to bet on solving that disparity with the use of force.”
However, Canada and Mexico are concerned about Biden’s “US buy” provisions and a proposed EV tax credit that would favor US manufacturers.
“Let’s talk about it,” Biden said in response to a reporter’s question as he sat down to chat with Trudeau. “It has not yet been approved in the Chamber. There are many complicated factors ”.
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said lawmakers could vote Thursday on Biden’s comprehensive “Rebuild Better” legislation that contains the EV tax credit.
Canada says the tax credit would violate T-MEC rules. The White House insisted Thursday that it does not.
Trudeau noted early in their conversations that he and Biden were “strongly aligned” on many issues, a stark contrast to the Canadian prime minister’s frequent political clashes with Trump.
The United States is the main trading partner for Mexico and Canada, and automobiles and trucks are the most widely traded manufactured goods among the three.
Canada and Mexico want a level playing field as they compete to entice companies to establish plants for the electric vehicle supply chain.
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