American protectionism, continental trade and irregular migration: all these subjects have returned to the news in recent days, just in time for the summit of the “three amigos” which will take place in Mexico City on Tuesday.
Canada had pushed the transition to electric vehicles the last time Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, US President Joe Biden and his Mexican counterpart Andrés Manuel López Obrador met at the White House in November 2021.
However, in this week’s encounter, the threat of a “US-first” approach to boosting the electric vehicle industry subsided, unlike the worsening migration crisis that Ms. Biden faces off on the US-Mexico border.
That likely means Mr. Trudeau will have to step up his game to get Mr. Biden’s attention on issues of interest to Canada, said Canadian American Business Council chief executive Scotty Greenwood.
“I think Canada is going to have to work hard to stay relevant in a conversation with the United States. There is no reason why Canada will be at the center of the discussions, but there is for Mexico,” explains Mr. Greenwood.
Canada, of course, will still have a vested interest in many of the issues that are likely to dominate the summit agenda.
Like the United States, Canada is also a destination country for irregular migrants from Latin America and is just as interested in stemming the circulation of fentanyl. Mr. Trudeau’s Liberal government also shares the ambitions of the Biden administration in the fight against climate change.
However, when it comes to fostering the growth of the critical minerals industry, the cornerstone of the burgeoning electric vehicle market, the United States expects Canada to do more, according to Mr Greenwood.
“The rhetoric is going in the right direction, but when it comes to real progress on policies that accelerate the development of critical minerals, Canada needs to do a lot more, and a lot faster, in order to make a good impression in the United States,” according to him.
Supply chains
For his part, former Manitoba premier Gary Doer, who served as Canada’s ambassador to the United States from 2009 to 2016, expects the issue of supply chains to be a dominant theme at the summit.
“With all the supply chain issues around the world and the opportunity for North America to improve its ties, that’s going to be a pretty big piece,” Doer said.
“The more certainty we can accumulate in the supply chain, the more guarantees we can have for our economy. This is a very important element in dealing with inflation: when there is uncertainty, the costs are higher,” he recalls.
Biden and Trudeau will hold a bilateral meeting on Tuesday before the official summit agenda begins, U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby confirmed Friday.
President Biden, who is traveling south this weekend to visit the border with Mexico, will hold a similar one-on-one meeting with Mr. López Obrador on Monday.
“Our partnership with Canada and Mexico is critical to our economic security, prosperity, democratic stability and, of course, migration management,” Kirby said during a White House press briefing. .
“This North American Leaders Summit will give us all an opportunity to strengthen these partnerships and advance common priorities for North America,” he said.
The three countries will also want to talk about the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) and the multiple disputes that have arisen over it since it came into force in 2020.