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Expanding the U.S.-Canada-Mexico economic relationship in the face of a looming global recession is a central focus of President Biden’s meeting this week with his Mexican and Canadian counterparts — a summit of three leaders overseeing the world’s single most powerful free trade alliance.
Mr. Biden has benefited from former President Donald Trump’s success in reforming the alliance through the 2020 U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), the output of which accounts for no less than a third of the world’s total GDP.
Administration officials say they are keen to continue growing the tripartite juggernaut, even as other factors weigh on the summit playing out Monday and Tuesday in Mexico City.
The reliability of Mexico‘s claim to be cracking down on illegal fentanyl production and smuggling into the United States hangs over Mr. Biden’s meeting Monday with Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby expressed optimism to reporters at the White House ahead of Mr. Biden’s trip, pointing to coordination between U.S. and Mexican law enforcement on the fentanyl crisis.
“We’re going to continue to work with them in lockstep to see what we can do jointly to try and limit that flow,” said Mr. Kirby, who praised last week’s arrest by Mexico of Ovidio Guzman, a son of former Sinaloa cartel boss Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzman, currently in U.S. federal prison.
“Mexico already has taken significant steps,” Mr. Kirby said, describing the younger Mr. Guzman as “a key fentanyl trafficker.”
The surging number of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border is another sticky subject dominating Monday’s Biden-López Obrador meeting.
Focus on ‘nearshoring’
The gathering of the two presidents and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau marks the first time Mexico has hosted a U.S. president since 2014.
Mr. Biden arrives at the Palacio Nacional in Mexico City on Monday afternoon, meeting with Mr. López Obrador before Mr. Trudeau joins them for dinner. Mr. Biden and Mr. Trudeau will hold talks Tuesday, with the three leaders then gathering for a group discussion.
Apart from drug smuggling interdiction and migration, Biden administration officials say discussions will focus on climate change, cross-border manufacturing, trade, the economy and the potential global clout of a more collaborative North America amid mounting economic competition with China.
