Today President Biden met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada and President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico for the North American Leaders' Summit. They reiterated our strong ties and integration, and willingness to chart a new path for our partnership at a time when we face incredibly complex global challenges. The Leaders pledged to take concrete actions in support of our joint goals, to include: ending the COVID-19 Pandemic and advancing Global Health; fostering competitiveness and creating the conditions for equitable growth, and coordinating a regional response to migration.
Ending the COVID-19 Pandemic and Advancing Global Health
The Leaders affirmed their vision of a world safe and secure from global health threats posed by infectious diseases by:
- Mexico and Canada committing to pay forward vaccine loans from the United States as vaccine donations to Latin America and the Caribbean to increase vaccination coverage.
- Ensuring that we are ready to face the next pandemic and other health threats by pledging to re-envision and update our North American Plan for Animal and Pandemic Influenza (NAPAPI).
- Reiterating our pledge to shore up our medical supply chains by exploring ways we can make the components of vaccines and other public health supplies here in North America.
- Working together to increase commitments to COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) Facility and improve vaccine distribution in Latin America and the Caribbean as well as globally, invest in our health workforce, and combat counterfeit medicines and medical supplies.
- Supporting the Global Health Security Agenda, including improving capacity and leadership to prevent, detect, and respond to infectious disease threats.
- Addressing the overdose epidemic and its related harms, by pledging to continue the North American Drug Dialogue (NADD) with updated and strategic objectives that encompass a comprehensive approach in addressing the global illegal drug environment and its serious consequences.
Fostering Competitiveness and Creating the Conditions for Equitable Growth
To build back together as North America, and for our economies to enhance our competitiveness and propel our future growth, the Leaders affirmed the need for the right conditions for businesses and workers to thrive, and are committed to:
- Strengthening North American supply chains by creating a trilateral supply chain coordination mechanism, with a goal to define essential industries to minimize future disruptions, recognizing that North America needs resilient, sustainable, diverse, and secure supply chains to ensure our economic prosperity and security.
- Strengthening Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) linkages by connecting SME centers across North America and to promote women's entrepreneurship through expert exchanges focused on economic recovery. They also committed to promoting innovation by supporting creators and reducing counterfeit and pirated goods in trade.
- Promoting good regulatory practices to achieve long-term and durable growth that delivers greater transparency, inclusivity, and accountability.
- Supporting strong labor rights protection and underscored their trilateral commitment to implement the prohibition on the import of goods produced with forced labor under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
- Holding a Trilateral Cyber Experts Meeting to address 21st century cyber issues, and plan to counter ransomware via the multilateral Counter Ransomware Initiative, because an open, interoperable, secure, and reliable Internet and strong critical infrastructure will also propel growth.
- Exploring opportunities with the private sector and universities to ensure our people are equipped with education and training for a 21st century workforce.
Recognizing the incredible challenges posed by the climate crisis to the world, the Leaders pledged to take concrete actions such as:
- Creating a North American Strategy on Methane and Black Carbon to reduce methane emissions from all sectors, especially oil and gas. We will also focus on reducing black carbon from diesel vehicles and engines, flaring, wood-burning appliances, and shipping.
- Joining diplomatic efforts to encourage others in the Americas to put forward ambitious Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) enhancements in 2022 and to hold a trilateral dialogue on NDC ambition and implementation.
- Collaborating to accelerate renewable energy deployment across North America, including technical assistance, best practices exchange, and efforts to catalyze finance and technology.
- Accelerating the transition to sustainable transportation, including more rapid deployment of electric vehicles, efforts toward net-zero greenhouse gas emissions from aviation by 2050, and cleaner fuels in the rail, aviation, and marine transportation sectors.
- Committing to conservation and enhancing natural carbon sinks, to also include support for climate-smart agriculture and forestry. The three countries will work toward ending deforestation and a commitment to conserve 30 percent of North American land and waters by 2030.
- Preserving the knowledge and practices of indigenous and local communities via the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation.
- Planning to convene leading North American states and cities as key contributors to national and global climate efforts to accelerate climate action.
In order to realize our full potential, the Leaders affirmed their support to press for full and meaningful participation in our democracies and economies for all by:
- Reaffirming their shared commitment to advancing equity and racial justice, and pledging to participate in ongoing trilateral engagement to develop a North American Partnership for Racial Equity and Inclusion.
- Committing to convene a meeting of Indigenous women leaders as part of the Trilateral Working Group on Violence Against Indigenous Women and Girls, which seeks to increase access to justice and services with a human rights and culturally responsive approach.
- Protecting LGBTQI+ human rights by pledging trilateral commitment to the Global Equality Fund to support frontline activists, and support and increase membership from the Americas in the United Nations LGBTQI Core Group and the Equal Rights Coalition, which coordinates diplomacy in support of human rights.
Coordinating on Migration, Development, and a Secure North America
President Biden, President López Obrador, and Prime Minister Trudeau recognized the complex factors that have driven an increase in irregular migration through the hemisphere, and recognized that they require a coordinated regional response with respect for law, rooted in solidarity with migrants and among States, prioritizing orderly, safe, and regular migration. The Leaders pledged to:
- Develop a regional compact on migration and protection for the Americas.
- Promote pathways to labor mobility, by committing to promote temporary seasonal worker visas, increasing industry education about the programs and their regulations, and expanding centralized migration resource centers in Central America. They also committed to announce additional programs and funding to create jobs in Latin America and the Caribbean.
- Dedicate additional assistance to address the root causes of irregular migration and forced displacement, and consider a trilateral development partnership between Mexico's AMEXCID, Global Affairs Canada, and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
- Strengthen asylum systems and refugee resettlement programs to provide international protection for those fleeing persecution, with each country expected to make new commitments to take in more refugees.
- Improve capacity to identify human trafficking and other crimes and create a trilateral migrant smuggling and human trafficking task force.
- Commit to promoting voluntary returns along the migratory route, in accordance with applicable international and national legal obligations.
To support our joint goals to combat transnational crime and terrorism, and to strengthen our defense collaboration, the Leaders pledged to:
- Take a consistent approach to collect, store, use, retain, and share Passenger Name Records per the standards and recommended practices of the International Civil Aviation Organization.
- Restart the Trilateral Working Group on Trafficking in Persons, to combat labor and sex trafficking in the region.
- Affirm our North American Defense Ministerial (NADM) commitments such as regional defense, security cooperation, disaster relief, and humanitarian assistance.
The Leaders also committed to trilateral stakeholder outreach as an integral feedback loop with the private sector, civil society, and others, as well as to promoting North American culture via arts programming and engagement that celebrates freedom of expression and creativity.