Joe Biden will meet the leaders of Mexico and Canada at the White House on Thursday, after Justin Trudeau urges US legislators to reject protectionist policies in the context of consecutive happenings in the US tram subsidize.
The first tripartite meeting between the three heads of state since 2016 – the so-called “triple love” summit – comes as Mexican and Canadian officials complain that Biden’s plan offers tax credits to the US government. with American-made electric cars, part of his $1.75 billion spending. packing, breaking the rules of international trade.
The Canadian prime minister’s office said that Trudeau spoke with lawmakers on Capitol Hill to “impress these key lawmakers on the importance of bilateral cooperation.”
The summit will see the US President aim to strengthen diplomatic ties across North America as US officials seek to work with allies to strengthen critical supply chains and navigate global crisis.
US officials said the three leaders planned to form a supply chain working group to “minimize future disruptions”, while other issues discussed included climate cooperation, health security and migration.
“North America is an important foundation for our domestic economic success, and the partnership can play a really important role in addressing these issues,” said a US official. regional and global challenges”.
Washington has been pushing to secure the supply chains of critical industries such as semiconductors, pharmaceuticals and electric vehicle batteries to reduce overreliance on countries like China.
Canada in particular is a rich source of minerals important to electric vehicle production, such as lithium, nickel, cobalt and graphite.
At Covid-19, the three leaders are expected to reach an agreement that Canada and Mexico will share some of their US-aided vaccines with other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, a senior official said. of the US said. The official added that public health experts will determine the timing and number of doses.
Meanwhile, the US has expressed concern about Mexican Energy Reform, which experts in the field say will make electricity more expensive and dirtier.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said if the matter came up at Thursday’s summit he was ready to urge his counterparts to help prevent what he called abuses by companies foreign energy, which he believes unfairly benefited from contracts offered by the previous administration. .
“Do you think it would be difficult for me to say this to President Biden or Prime Minister Trudeau? No, I doubt they are in favor of protecting the corrupt,” he said at a morning press conference Wednesday.
A US official said the Biden administration was “closely watching” Mexico’s proposed energy reform and was “preparing the two presidents to discuss it”.
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