North American Leaders Meet For First Time Since 2016

Last week, the leaders of North America’s three countries convened for the first time since 2016. In a meeting at the White House, U.S. President Joe Biden, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador discussed supply chain matters, the ongoing pandemic, ways to address the threat of climate change, and more.

While no formal agreement was reached during the meeting, in statement President Biden, Prime Minister Trudeau, and President López Obrador pledged to:

• Develop and enact good regulatory practices; strong labor rights protections; a safe, secure, and reliable cyber ecosystem; predictability in trading relations; a strong critical infrastructure; and high environmental standards.
• Foster collaborative education and training and explore new partnerships.
• Minimize disruptions and reduce the vulnerability to counterfeit and pirated goods that threaten North America’s integrated supply chains.
• Raise the region’s climate ambition and work toward ending deforestation and to conserve 30 percent of North American land and waters by 2030.
• Use their framework on pandemic influenza developed during the COVID-19 crisis to share information and best practices and strengthen this plan beyond influenza to other global health threats.