Canada, US Presidents to Land at AIFA for Leader Summit

Next week, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador will receive US President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA) for the North American Leaders Summit (CLAN). The Summit was reactivated in 2021 after it had been paused during Donald Trump’s administration. During the CLAN, North America’s largest countries, representing a third of the global GDP, will address challenges ranging from a looming recession to soaring migration levels.

“It is not a logistical issue, and it is a political issue. Perhaps President Biden does not know this, but I am taking this opportunity to tell him that out of friendship and diplomacy, we ask for his plane to land at the General Felipe Angeles Airport,” said López Obrador in the morning press conference of Jan 5. Both Biden and Trudeau confirmed that their planes would land at AIFA after López Obrador’s request. Before he arrives in the country’s metropolitan area, Biden will visit Laredo and El Paso, Texas, to address the urgent immigration situation at the border state. Once they meet in Mexico, López Obrador and Biden will have a private talk together and then a bilateral meeting that will be attended by Mexico’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Marcelo Ebrard Casaubon, Minister of Interior Adán Augusto López Hernández, Minister of Security and Citizen Protection Rosa Icela Rodríguez and Minister of the Treasury Rogelio Ramírez de la O. Representing the US will be the Minister of State Antony Blinken, Minister of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and the US Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar, according to the Summit program, presented by Ebrard in the morning press conference.

According to Ebrard, the main issues to be addressed during the CLAN are: diversity, equity and inclusion, environment, competitiveness, migration and development, health and common security. The frictions in the US, Mexico and Canada Agreement (USMCA) are expected to be addressed at the CLAN and will mark the economic future of Mexico, which could face a recession. Since 2021, 17 trade disputes concerning the USMCA have been initiated. Nine are state-to-state, two are investor-state, five are on labor and one is environmental.

Of the 17 disputes, the US has presented nine against Mexico and two against Canada. Canada has triggered three against the US and one against Mexico. Mexico and Canada jointly requested to establish a dispute settlement panel to address the US interpretation of regional value content in the auto sector. The three most-watched cases involve the Mexican energy policies, the Mexican ban on GMO corn and the US interpretation of auto rules of origin, according to the AS/COA Media North American Leaders’ Summit Brief. 
If no agreement is reached, Mexico’s economy could be strongly affected and the country could fall into recession. “The open consultation process is the greatest economic risk for our country, and the worst would be the imposition of tariffs. Without the (trade) relationship with the US, there remains the possibility of a recession that could be prolonged,” Gabriela Siller, Economics Professor, Tec de Monterrey, told Forbes Mexico.