[The Epoch Times, January 10, 2023](Comprehensive report by Epoch Times reporter Chen Ting) On Monday (January 9), U.S. President Joe Biden met with Mexican President Andres Manuel López O. Andrés Manuel López Obrador, they talked about promoting economic integration, fighting drug cartels and managing immigration.
U.S. and Mexican leaders met for about an hour bilaterally Monday night as part of plans for the North American summit. While both committed to working together, it was a tit-for-tat exchange.
In his opening remarks, López Obrador urged Biden to deepen integration and investment in the region. “On our continent, there are unparalleled conditions to launch a new policy of economic and social integration,” he said.
He called on the United States to work to improve the lives of the entire region, and he told Biden that “the key is in your hands.”
“Now is the moment we decide to reject this abandonment, belittling and forgetting of Latin America and the Caribbean,” López Obrador said.
López Obrador also said that despite the USMCA trade agreement (USMCA) being a valuable tool, shipments from Asia have continued to grow, showing that North American countries are still dependent on Asian production.
“Ask yourself, can’t we produce in the Americas what we consume? Of course we can,” he said. “It’s a matter of defining and collectively planning our future.”
Biden responded that the two would discuss “how we can further deepen our relationship with each other, not just with Mexico, but with the Western Hemisphere. That includes strengthening our supply chains and making us more competitive.”
Biden emphasized that the United States has spent billions of dollars in foreign aid around the world, but “regrettably, our responsibility does not end in the Western Hemisphere.”
From Monday to Wednesday, López Obrador will host the North American summit in Mexico City. According to the meeting’s agenda, most of the summit’s work will take place on Tuesday, when the two leaders and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will hold talks for several hours.
The outside world expects that the leaders can resolve many differences at the summit. Including Mexico’s energy policy that exclusively benefits state-owned enterprises, rules of origin for automobiles, customs rules, and a ban on the import of genetically modified corn.
Meanwhile, Trudeau and López Obrador are also concerned about Biden’s efforts to boost domestic manufacturing, leading them to worry that the U.S. could leave its neighbors behind.
“Trade tensions over autos, customs rules, genetically modified corn and Mexican energy policy are already high and likely to intensify,” said Jake Colvin, president of the National Foreign Trade Council, a business group.
“To build a North American corridor to defeat China, the U.S., Canada and Mexico need to be aligned economically,” Cowen said.
The Fentanyl Problem and Cross-Border Smuggling
Earlier Monday, U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan (Jake Sullivan) told the media that Biden believed that he could make a “commitment to strengthen cooperation” at the summit to address the fentanyl problem. The synthetic opioid, which is 50 times more potent than heroin, is responsible for thousands of deaths in the United States every year.
The plan is for Mexico to reduce the amount of fentanyl smuggled across the border while the U.S. must reduce the amount of guns being trafficked into Mexico, two Mexican officials said, Reuters reported.
Last week, Mexico arrested cartel leader Ovidio Guzman, the son of drug lord Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman. A Mexican official said the weapons used by Guzman’s gang had entered the country from U.S. border states.
“(The two leaders) discussed increasing cooperation to prosecute drug traffickers and dismantle criminal networks, disrupt the supply of illicit chemical precursors used to make fentanyl, close drug labs, and prevent the spread of our commonwealth,” the White House said in a statement. Drugs, arms and human trafficking across borders.”
Mexican Energy Policy
Along with talk of deepening economic ties, there are also concerns over whether Mexico will revise its energy policy.
In July last year, the United States and Canada launched a formal trade complaint, accusing Mexico’s energy policy of violating the obligations contained in the USMCA Trade Agreement (USMCA), benefiting its state-owned energy companies and blocking other countries from investing in Mexico’s clean energy Infrastructure plumbing.
Sullivan said the bilateral meeting would identify “potential avenues” to resolve the impasse.
“But we’re not there yet,” he said. “We’ll decide what to do next based on how things go.”
López Obrador has argued that his energy policies are a matter of national sovereignty, arguing that past governments have distorted markets in favor of private interests.
The U.S. and Canada say further investment is being discouraged as Mexico’s government cedes control of the market to cash-strapped state-owned energy companies, putting U.S. and Canadian companies at a disadvantage.
On Friday, Trudeau said he would show that resolving the energy dispute would bring more foreign capital to Mexico. He is confident that progress will be made.
illegal immigration
The U.S. and Mexico also reached an agreement last week on a major shift in immigration policy ahead of the summit.
Under the plan, the U.S. will provide up to 30,000 citizens from Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba and Haiti with a new path to legal entry every month. As long as they are legal, have a qualified sponsor, and pass a background check, they can legally work in the United States.
At the same time, the United States will also deport illegal immigrants from these four countries. For various reasons, it is difficult for these migrants to return to their home countries. Mexico agreed to accept up to 30,000 migrants a month from the four countries.
Before the summit began, López Obrador said he would consider accepting more migrants than previously announced, according to the Associated Press.
“We don’t want to predict things, but this is part of what we will discuss at the summit,” López Obrador said.
“We support measures like this that give people choices and alternatives,” he said, adding that “the numbers could increase”.
The Associated Press pointed out that Mexico may require an increase in the number of people with U.S. work permits to bring back more deported immigrants.
Editor in charge: Ye Ziwei #