THREE AMIGOS OR FAIR-WEATHER FRIENDS?

• Published in: Foreign Policy in Focus p. 1
• Main Authors: Trew, Stuart, Perez-Rocha, Manuel, Hansen-Kuhn, Karen
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: Washington Inter-Hemispheric Resource Center Press 10.01.2023
• Subjects: Agribusiness; Agricultural biotechnology; Competition; Consumers; Energy development; Energy policy; Fairness; Food; Genetically altered foods; Greenhouse gases; International cooperation; International relations; International trade; LGBTQ people; Litigation; Migration; North American Free Trade Agreement; Poverty; Presidents; Prime ministers; Renewable energy; Rights; Social cohesion; Strategic materials; Summit conferences; Wealth; Canada; United States > US; Mexico; North America
• ISSN: 1524-1939

International trade remains a battleground in 2023, as a growing number of countries question the sustainability of the current rules-based international trading order. Supply chain resilience, reshoring manufacturing, "inclusive" trade, labour rights and decarbonization are the new themes driving economic thinking, especially here in North America.Canada, Mexico and the United States have all, in some way, officially acknowledged the social and environmental toll that hyperglobalization's so-called externalities have taken, including uncontrolled greenhouse gas emissions, extreme wealth concentration, and declining social cohesion. Even so, our governments continue to let dubious trade disputes get in the way of more sustainable, worker-focused regional cooperation.This week, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Joe Biden will join President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) in Mexico City for a 10th North American Leaders' summit. The agenda for the "three amigos" meeting is broad, according to Mexican Secretary of Foreign Relations Marcelo Ebrard.Leaders will build on commitments from their 2021 summit in Washington, D.C., which include the development of a compact on migration, the acceleration of renewable energy deployment and sustainable transportation networks, and improvements in the areas of racial equity, LGBTQQIA+ rights, and ending violence against Indigenous and other women.Ebrard would also like to see the "three amigos" discuss education and culture, and he claims that one of Mexico's top priorities this year is "to reduce poverty and inequality that are growing in the Americas." For Biden, the competitiveness of North American manufacturing relative to other parts of the world will top bilateral and trilateral discussions. Trudeau has emphasized the need to collaborate across electric vehicle supply chains, including critical minerals, and to "improve health and build a future where no one is left behind."