President Joe Biden on Tuesday preached economic unity and the importance of democracy alongside Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, in a three-country press conference culminating the North American leaders summit in Mexico.
Mexico’s president announced that the three countries would create an independent economic panel to coordinate North American imports, in an effort, he said, to become “increasingly self-sufficient in this part of the world.”
Biden echoed that goal: “The top of our shared agenda today is keeping the North America the most competitive, prosperous and resilient economic region of the world.”
According to a White House fact sheet on outcomes of the summit, semiconductors and critical minerals are at the top of the list of supply chains the U.S. wants to strengthen.
“This is good for workers, good for consumers and good for communities across our countries,” Trudeau mirrored in his comments.
President Joe Biden, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau meet at the 10th North American Leaders’ Summit at the National Palace in Mexico City, Mexico, Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
All three also touched on the importance of the democratic ideals shared between them.
“As three vibrant democracies, we recognize our greatest strength is our people,” Biden said.
“As a continent, we are unique. We are three large democracies committed to freedom, human rights, equality and creating real opportunity for everyone,” Trudeau said.
López Obrador added a note of support for the new Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, after supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro stormed the Brazilian congress in protest this week.
The Mexican president, who hosted the summit at the National Palace in Mexico City, took a softer tone with Biden than he did one day earlier, when López Obrador suggested the U.S. had for decades neglected the region and Latin America as a whole.
“I fully trust President Biden,” he said. “I have reasserted, reaffirmed that President Biden is a man with convictions, who maintains principles, ideals.”
Biden first met with Prime Minister Trudeau earlier in the day, during which, according to a White House readout of the meeting, the two leaders discussed discussed migration, strengthening supply chains for semiconductors and electric vehicles, combatting climate change and defense and security cooperation. Biden and Trudeau specifically touched on security and the humanitarian situation in Haiti and the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Biden is set to make his first visit to Canada as president in March, the White House announced in a release.
At the top of the meeting, Biden thanked the prime minister for his continued partnership.
“You’ve always been there whenever I’ve called,” Biden said, noting what he called the “unlimited economic potential” of the hemisphere when North American countries work together.
Trudeau said he was excited to chat with Biden about “more local issues” in a sense, after the two had most recently coordinated on things further from home, such as the Russian invasion in Ukraine or competing with China.
Migration was at the forefront of the summit after President Biden announced new policies last week in an attempt to reduce the number of crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border by restricting migrants from certain countries.
Under the plan, the U.S. will send 30,000 migrants per month from Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti and Venezuela back across the border from among those who entered the U.S. illegally. Migrants who arrive from those four countries are not easily returned to their home countries for a variety of reasons.
On Monday, before the summit began, López Obrador said he would consider accepting more migrants than previously announced.
“We don’t want to anticipate things, but this is part of what we are going to talk about at the summit,” López Obrador said. “We support this type of measures, to give people options, alternatives,” he said, adding that “the numbers may be increased.”
Biden and López Obrador held the first official meeting on Monday evening, which began with a tense exchange.
Mexico’s president challenged Biden to improve life across the region, telling him that “you hold the key in your hand.”
“This is the moment for us to determine to do away with this abandonment, this disdain, and this forgetfulness for Latin America and the Caribbean,” he said.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, second from left, speaks during a meeting with President Joe Biden at the National Palace in Mexico City, Mexico, Monday, Jan. 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
He also complained that too many imports are coming from Asia instead of being produced in the Americas.
“We ask ourselves, couldn’t we produce in America what we consume?” he said. “Of course.”
Biden responded by defending the billions of dollars that the United States spends in foreign aid around the world, saying “unfortunately our responsibility just doesn’t end in the Western Hemisphere.” And he referenced U.S. deaths from fentanyl, a drug that flows over the border from Mexico.
While both men pledged to work together, it was a noticeably sharp exchange, on full display before reporters. They met privately for about an hour before having dinner with Trudeau and their wives.
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden, attend an arrival ceremony as they arrive to meet with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, and Obrador’s wife Beatriz Gutierrez Muller, at the National Palace in Mexico City, Mexico, Monday, Jan. 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
The meeting is held most years, although there was a hiatus while Donald Trump was U.S. president. It’s often called the “three amigos summit,” a reference to the deep diplomatic and economic ties between the countries, but new strains have emerged.
All three countries are struggling to handle an influx of people arriving in North America and to crack down on smugglers who profit from persuading migrants to make the dangerous trip to the U.S.
