The Mexican President, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador; the american president, Joe Biden, and the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeauagreed on the need to strengthen the economic relations of the three nations, as well as cooperation in supply chains and critical minerals.
The three leaders met this Tuesday within the framework of the X Summit of North American Leaders to seek to boost competitiveness, the fight against climate change, address the migration crisis and security cooperation, under the shadow of their trade disputes.
They appeal for cooperation to solve immigration problems
After the meeting, in a joint message to the media, President López Obrador reiterated the need for the migration problem to be seen from a humanist point of view.
Given this, President Biden highlighted the need to reinforce and technologically update the border between Mexico and the United States to have greater control and intercept the smuggling of illegal drugs and human trafficking.
López Obrador celebrated that the United States has decided to order the migratory flow on the northern border. “We think what Canada is doing is the right thing to do,” he said.
Presidents Joe Biden and Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met at noon at the National Palace in Mexico City.
US and Canada seek to “stabilize Haiti”
Prior to the Summit meeting, Biden and Trudeau They held a bilateral meeting, after which they announced a visit by the US president to Canada in March.
Both discussed “ways to help stabilize Haiti,” Biden had advanced in his introductory remarks. Their governments have been contemplating for a long time the possible sending of an intervention force to the Caribbean country, plagued by crime and health problems.
“We can build great things here,” Trudeau said before meeting with Biden, recalling that the three nations, members of the USMCA, constituted “the largest free trade bloc in the world.”
Opportunities
The three countries – whose economies contribute 28% of global GDP – are committed to strengthening the T-MEC, with an exchange of three million dollars per minute between January and October.
That has made them an economic bloc 50% and 55% larger than China and the European Union, respectively, according to the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (imco).
After meeting with businessmen on Monday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recalled that his government and that of Mexico worked hard to maintain the treaty in the face of threats by former President Donald Trump (2017-2021) to withdraw the United States.
The rulers announced a website so that travelers know the necessary requirements before heading to the region, the scene of a migration crisis, according to a document that lists several agreements, released by the White House.
Near the Mexican palace, a small group of activists demanded an end to the expulsions of migrants from the United States, leading a scuffle with the police.
Amnesty International called on US leaders to give “top priority” to the rights of refugees and migrants and to stop “inhumane shared immigration policies.”
Biden recently authorized the monthly entry of 30,000 Venezuelans, Cubans, Nicaraguans and Haitians for two years, but warned that the expulsions of undocumented immigrants will continue.
The three presidents also announced a greater exchange of information to interdict the precursors that Mexican cartels bring from Asia to produce fentanyl, a powerful synthetic drug that kills thousands in the United States.
“North American cooperation makes our countries safer, our economies more competitive, and our supply chains more competitive,” Washington said in a statement.
The Summit took place days after the violent escalation that shook Culiacán, Sinaloa, due to the capture of drug trafficker Ovidio Guzmán, son of Joaquín “Chapo” Guzmán.
Semiconductors and emissions
The three leaders met in a complex context, which paradoxically could spark greater competitiveness in the region.
In this scenario, “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the energy crisis in Europe, the zero covid policy in China and the trend towards the regionalization of value chains intersect,” says the IMCO.
The three countries signed a series of agreements that include the development of the semiconductor industry and a 15% reduction in methane emissions by 2030.
Biden had signed a law in August to promote this industry in the United States for some 52,000 million dollars, fearing that China controls the sector.
The Mexican government announced its intention to join the plan, for which it has lithium reserves, now nationalized, but the size of which is unknown.
Mexico wants to turn its border with the United States into a development pole with the Sonora Plan, which includes the exploitation of lithium -key for the development of new technologies and electric cars-, the production of these cars through the relocation of assembly plants and the construction of solar power plants.
Washington has expressed its support for that strategy, which will require investments of 48 billion dollars, as part of its efforts against climate change.
(With information from AFP.)
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