It is sometimes nicknamed the “Tres amigos” summit. A tripartite meeting USA, Mexico and Canada, is being held Thursday, November 18 in Washington. Joe Biden has decided to relaunch this tradition abandoned by his predecessor Donal Trump in 2016. The US president says he wants to strengthen ties with his business partners when there are many points of disagreement.
Canada worried about US protectionism
The Canadian Prime Minister will have the right to a bilateral meeting with his American counterpart. This is the first visit to the White House for Justin Trudeau since Donald Trump’s successor was elected. We imagine that he is delighted to have changed interlocutor. There is no photo, as they say: to find oneself in front of an American president who says he believes in multilateralism, in the fight against global warming, present moreover a few days ago in Glasgow for the COP26 … Obviously, Justin Trudeau is relieved to find a cordial interlocutor, not to say normal, after four tumultuous years with Donald Trump.
However, relations between the two great neighbors of North America are not much easier than before, especially economically. Remember: barely installed in the White House, Joe Biden canceled the planned extension of the Keystone XL pipeline, which was to connect Alberta to the American refineries in the Gulf of Mexico. It had given off a first cold. But today, it is especially the very protectionist economic policy of Joe Biden, in the strict continuity of his predecessor, which worries Ottawa. Whether in the vast infrastructure plan signed Monday in Washington, or in the upcoming one intended to “green” the American economy, everything is being done to favor American products and entrepreneurs. Obviously to the detriment of the great Canadian neighbor and friend, even though the economies of the two countries are very integrated.
We are heading to Washington for the North American Leaders’ Summit, where we will work with our American and Mexican partners to advance our common priorities, find solutions to global challenges and more. Follow this thread for updates. pic.twitter.com/lepK2tFTXd
– Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) November 17, 2021
Just one example: cars assembled in the United States are filled with auto parts made in Canada. If these vehicles should no longer be considered as made in the USA, because of these “foreign” parts, thousands of jobs could be threatened in Canada. Justin Trudeau hopes to convince his interlocutor that to challenge the great Chinese power, he must rely on the North American economic fortress, Canada included. But an expert in international law confided to us that he was under no illusions. The Biden-Trudeau photo will be beautiful, full of smiles, that’s for sure. But fundamentally, the Democratic president is just as determined to please his constituents, attached to the Buy American, as his predecessor.
Mexico wants to influence Joe Biden’s migration policy
On the Mexican side, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said he would not go “not waste your time” in Washington and that he was waiting for decisions to be taken at that summit. Since the coming to power of Joe Biden, the Mexican head of state has not hesitated to raise several thorny themes and he did so again on the eve of this meeting.
Recall that AMLO, as the Mexicans call it, had delayed several months before recognizing the victory of Joe Biden, which was to set the tone of this rather gloomy relationship. The Mexican president is now taking the ideological opposite of his host: he criticizes the blockade imposed on Cuba, which he describes as an instrument to push the Cuban people to rebel against his government. However, it is a discourse at the antipodes of what Joe Biden wants, who wanted to see the three great nations of North America unite their voices at this summit to demand respect for freedoms in Cuba. But López Obrador wants to reaffirm his leadership at the head of the Latin American left, while sparing relations with his major trading partners, the United States and Canada. The Mexican president is torn between these two dimensions.
AMLO is waiting, he said, for decisions to be adopted, in particular on migration issues. He arrives with a big file under his arm: a new caravan of migrants is crossing Mexico at the moment, arrests at the border between the two countries, in particular of Central American and Haitian migrants, have reached record levels in recent months. Andrés Manuel López Obrador calls on Joe Biden to take action beyond coercion, beyond evictions, to fund social assistance programs in Central America. A proposal that has not yet aroused the overwhelming enthusiasm of its counterpart in Washington.
Another burning issue: the Mexican president will also propose to his American counterpart to send Mexican workers to the United States. He will suggest that Joe Biden launch a guest worker program to address the labor shortages currently plaguing the US economy. “We have these workers in Mexico that you desperately need”, that’s AMLO’s message. As for the fight against the pandemic, López Obrador wants to encourage his partners to adopt a more global vision, to commit to a more equitable distribution of vaccines. Beginning by targeting millions of doses of vaccine to the Latin America-Caribbean region.