GUADALAJARA – Leaders of the US, Mexico and Canada have vowed to fight the spread of the H1N1 swine flu and combat drug gangs but differed on trade disputes at their “three amigos” summit.
US president Barack Obama, Mexican president Felipe Calderón and Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper met against a backdrop of an economic downturn in each country with a US rebound key to a regional improvement.
“The global recession has cost jobs and hurt families from Toronto to Toledo to Tijuana,” said Mr Obama at a joint news conference as the leaders pledged to work together to prepare for a summit of 20 leading economies in Pittsburgh next month.
Facing the possibility of a resurgence in the H1N1 virus this autumn likely to lead to more deaths, the three leaders pledged that their governments would share information and try to instruct people on how to prepare for it.
They vowed to respect the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) that unites their countries in trade, but differed on some issues. Mr Harper raised with Mr Obama Canada’s concerns about the “buy American” provisions in the $787 billion (€556 billion) US economic stimulus plan that it fears could shut out Canadian companies. Canada is the US’s largest trading partner.
Mr Obama said it was important that no sweeping protectionist measures had been imposed and that the “buy American” provisions were limited to the stimulus and “in no way endangered the billions of dollars in trade between our two countries”.
A central focus of the talks was also the fight against Mexican gangs dominating the drug trade over the US border and up into Canada, often with US-made weapons. Mr Obama and Mr Harper rallied around Mr Calderón in his government’s drive against warring drug gangs, which has raised concerns about human-rights abuses as the body count soars.
Mr Calderón said his government was doing its best to respect human rights while trying to destroy the enemy.
All three also underscored their objective of seeing the peaceful resolution of what Mr Obama said was clearly a coup against Honduran president Manuel Zelaya.
Mr Calderón, in his opening statement, indirectly raised a cross-border trucking dispute over Mexican trucks being allowed to transit into the US.
He said all three leaders believed it was essential to abide by Nafta and to “resolve the pending topics” impeding greater regional competitiveness. Mr Obama had made clear to Mr Calderón that he was working with the US Congress to resolve what he considers to be legitimate safety concerns with Mexican trucks.
He said the US, Mexico and Canada should take steps to avoid protectionism, saying “we need to expand that trade, not restrict it”. – (Reuters)