• Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador will welcome US President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Mexico City on Monday for a summit that will focus greatly on immigration.
• U.S. and Mexico officials to also discuss increased law-enforcement cooperation and the fentanyl problem

Tarini Parti and Anthony Harrup, WSJ

MEXICO CITY
EnergiesNet.com 01 10 2023

President Biden focused on immigration, security and supply-chain problems when he met with his Mexican counterpart on Monday for the North American Leaders’ Summit—issues on which the two countries have had some differing views.

He and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador were joined by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for dinner Monday night, before all three meet on Tuesday. The countries have been working through trade disputes over implementation of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

Calling Mr. Biden a visionary and humanistic president, Mr. López Obrador urged the U.S. to make more investments in the region and consolidate their economic agenda to strengthen supply-chain resilience.

“I look forward to building that better future,” Mr. Biden said, adding that the U.S. has been spending significantly in the region for the past 15 years.

Mr. Biden and Mr. López Obrador, who have met twice at the White House, also discussed ways to work together to tackle the surge in illegal border crossings facing both nations, officials from both countries said. 

Ahead of the meeting in Mexico City, the Biden administration introduced new steps to deter migrants seeking asylum at the southern border by expanding its use of several Trump-era border control measures, which in part rely on Mexico to take back 30,000 migrants a month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

On his way to Mexico, Mr. Biden made a stop in El Paso, Texas, on Sunday, his first trip to the southern border as president. He assessed enforcement operations at the Bridge of the Americas Port of Entry and visited the El Paso County migrant services center. 

The administration has faced bipartisan criticism for its handling of the border for the past two years. U.S. Border Patrol made a record 2.2 million arrests last fiscal year, ending in September, of people caught crossing the southern border illegally, according to data released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. 

Ahead of the meeting in Mexico City, the Biden administration introduced new steps to deter migrants seeking asylum at the southern border by expanding its use of several Trump-era border control measures, which in part rely on Mexico to take back 30,000 migrants a month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

On his way to Mexico, Mr. Biden made a stop in El Paso, Texas, on Sunday, his first trip to the southern border as president. He assessed enforcement operations at the Bridge of the Americas Port of Entry and visited the El Paso County migrant services center. 

The administration has faced bipartisan criticism for its handling of the border for the past two years. U.S. Border Patrol made a record 2.2 million arrests last fiscal year, ending in September, of people caught crossing the southern border illegally, according to data released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. 

Over the past year, migrants from Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela have made up a majority of those allowed to remain in the U.S. to seek asylum. They have posed a particular challenge for the U.S. government because the governments of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela have largely refused to take back their own citizens. Mexico had also previously refused to take back migrants of those nationalities. 

Mr. López Obrador, in his morning press conference, welcomed the U.S. decision to increase the number of work visas for people from those countries, saying it would reduce the number of migrants making the risky trek across Mexico. “We’re certain it works,” he said.

Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard defended Mexico’s decision to take in migrants turned back at the U.S. border.

“What option does Mexico have? They return them from the bridge and are we going to deport them? Of course not,” he said. “What do you do with those people? You offer them refuge, you offer them work.”

Jake Sullivan, Mr. Biden’s national security adviser, said Monday he wasn’t expecting a new number to be announced during the summit, adding that the two countries would monitor how the new program worked and see if any adjustments needed to be made.

Improving cooperation to confront the threat of fentanyl, much of which is produced by Mexican cartels and then smuggled into the U.S., is also expected to be a priority topic at the meeting, officials said. There were more than 107,000 drug overdose deaths in the U.S. in 2021, largely fueled by fentanyl. 

Days before Mr. Biden’s trip, Mexico’s military captured Ovidio Guzmán, the son of former kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. The U.S. has requested the extradition of the younger Mr. Guzmán, who was indicted in 2018 in Washington on charges of smuggling methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana. 

Mr. López Obrador said that Mr. Guzmán’s capture wasn’t related to Mr. Biden’s visit. 

“There is cooperation, and it will continue, but we take our decisions as a sovereign, independent government,” he said on Friday.

A senior U.S. official said the U.S. would strive to work effectively with Mexico on the fentanyl issue and increase law-enforcement cooperation, which was strained by the arrest of former Mexican Defense Minister Gen. Salvador Cienfuegos in 2020. Gen. Cienfuegos was quickly released by then-U.S. Attorney General William Barr after Mexico threatened to withhold law-enforcement cooperation. 

Mr. López Obrador has sought to strengthen the dominant role of Mexico’s state oil company and the public power utility at the expense of private and foreign investors. Mexican authorities are in consultations with the U.S. in an effort to avoid a USMCA dispute panel over energy policy, which the U.S. Trade Representative’s office says put billions of dollars in U.S. investments at risk. Canada has also joined in the complaint.

Mr. Sullivan said he expected the consultations over Mexico’s energy policy to be a part of Mr. Biden’s meetings. “The president certainly comes with that as a key part of his economic agenda here,” he said.

Mr. Trudeau, meanwhile, will use the summit to pitch Canada as a place for investments in the electric-vehicle supply chain, said a person who is close to the prime minister’s office.

The prime minister wants to bolster the Canadian manufacturing sector’s attempts to build a mining, electric-vehicle and battery-manufacturing industry that is integrated with that of the U.S.

Canada benefits from provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act signed by Mr. Biden last year, which includes a $7,500 tax credit to buy electric vehicles made in North America, including ones made in Canada and Mexico. The inclusion of the credit was the result of an intense effort by Canadian and Mexican government and industry officials to protect their automotive industries. The auto sector makes up more than 9% of Canada’s exports.

However, Canadian lawmakers are now concerned about another provision in the act that benefits only U.S. manufacturers. Canadian lawmakers are worried that the Advanced Manufacturing Production Credit in the IRA, which offers tax credits to battery makers located in the U.S., could draw investment in the battery industry away from Canada and hobble the local industry.

—Vipal Monga and José de Córdoba contributed to this article.

Write to Tarini Parti at tarini.parti@wsj.com and Anthony Harrup at anthony.harrup@wsj.com

Appeared on the WSJ in the January 10, 2023, print edition as ‘Americas Summit Has a Broad Agenda’.