North American Leaders Summit: Obama, Nieto, Harper Engaging in Trilateral Meetings in Toluca

The leaders of the North American continent are meeting today in Toluca, Mexico. U.S. President Barack Obama, Mexico's Enrique Pena Nieto and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper will be meeting formally on Wednesday, with a trilateral press conference following meetings between the three leaders as well as with business and academic professionals.

Harper left Canada for Mexico on Monday. White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters that the U.S. contingent will wrap up all their business in Toluca in one day on Wednesday.

In previewing the summit, a senior administration official pointed out that a third of U.S. exports are the United States' two closest neighbors, which translates to approximately 14 million American jobs. He also stressed the mportance of the three countries' ability to function as a bloc when dealing with the global economy.

"(The) North American Leaders Summit has a been a forum where we can address things like how we are reducing barriers to trade, improving the commercial environment and dealing with whatever trade concerns or irritants may emerge as well," the official added. "And so, we have an agenda that focuses, again, on lifting up North American competitiveness, reducing barriers to effective and efficient trade that supports jobs in all three countries."

At the first North American Leaders Summit, former U.S. President George W. Bush and Mexico's then-President Vicente Fox got along so famously many referred to it as the "Three Amigos Summit," but many political observers say it may not be so warm and fuzzy this time around.

The Obama administration is not happy with Mexico for blocking security initiatives, and Nieto is not happy with Washington over the failure to move forward with immigration reform. Canada and Mexico's relations have grown somewhat cold over Canada's strict visa requirements which were first instituted in 2009.

However, as many political analysts will point out, bilateral disagreements will often get pushed to the back-burner during such trilateral meetings, or at the very least, discussed between the interested parties during breaks in the official agenda.

The leaders are expected to carry out discussions on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which Canada and Mexico have joined in the negotiations for within the past two years. The TPP has several critics in the U.S. and abroad, but the White House is very eager to get an agreement in place as soon as possible.

“I think the case that we'll make to anybody is that this is a key part of our economic agenda because it has the potential to create an enormous amount of jobs in the United States,” said the administration official. “When you look at the markets that are part of TPP in the Asia Pacific region, the largest, fastest-growing emerging economic region in the world, that if we are not getting in the game, negotiating trade agreements, helping to set the rules of the road so that we're addressing issues like intellectual property, state-owned enterprises, labor and the environment and also making sure that there's a level playing field for our businesses, that we are going to lose out in the global economy."

Nieto and many senior level Mexican officials are keen to see Mexico, the United States and Canada form a tighter economic bloc that would resemble the conditions of the European Union.

"We need to work, the three countries, together. Not only the governments, but the private sector," said Mexican Under-Secretary of Foreign Affairs Sergio Alcocer Martinez to Postmedia News. "The most important outcome that you will get from this is that North America is back. We produce 28 percent of the product in the world. That shows you the power this region has."

In one of the issues that is less likely than most to cause disagreements, the three countries are being urged by scientists to do more to mitigate the declining populations of Monarch butterflies. The Monarchs traverse all the way from Mexico up to Canada and the three countries are being asked to review industry practices that some scientists say are detrimental to the insect, as well as looking at the possibility of creating a "milkweed corridor" through the continent to make the journey easier.

"If the monarch butterfly migration and overwintering phenomenon is to persist in eastern North America, mitigation of breeding habitat loss must be initiated," a letter to the three leaders reads. "As Mexico is addressing the logging issues, so now must the United States and Canada address the effects of our current agricultural policies.