U.S. President Joe Biden, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will hold their first in-person trilateral meeting in Washington on November 18.
Leaders of the three countries started holding what is informally known as the Three Amigos summit in 2005 and met most years until 2016. The practice ended when U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January 2017.
According to CBC Canada, this first meeting between the three leaders comes at a challenging time for the Canada-U.S. relationship because there are a couple of “irritants” that need attention.
First, when Joe Biden was elected president, Canadians were thrilled, especially after the fractious four-year term of his predecessor, Donald Trump. Canada really believed things would return to normal under Biden.
A laundry-list of complaints
One irritant is the president’s climate policy. Biden appears to be beholden to progressive elements in the Democratic Party, more so than past presidents.
Biden’s climate policy has become a priority to appeal to green activists. Canada’s energy sector is paying a price. CBC Canada cites Biden’s move to cancel permits for the Keystone XL pipeline during his first week in office.
The move, of course, was seen as dealing a death blow to Alberta’s oilpatch. Another pipeline is also in jeopardy – Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline – and Biden has done little to stop Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, from trying to shut it down.
A spokesperson for Biden said this week the White House is awaiting a review by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers before deciding whether to wade into a debate over the future of the controversial pipeline.
Labor Minister Seamus O’Regan — who served as the natural resources minister until recently — has said the line’s continued operation is “non-negotiable.”
Another issue is Biden’s long wait to reopen the U.S.-Canada border, While Canada lifted the restrictions on non-essential travel this summer, Biden waited until last week to reopen the border.
However, Canada’s new Foreign Minister Melanie Joly on Friday said she had pressed U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on two major irritants that need to be discussed in the talks next week.
First on Joly’s list is the proposed U.S. electric vehicle tax credits for American-built vehicles. Ottawa says would hurt the integrated continental auto industry and put thousands of jobs at risk.
Congress has drafted a bill, the Build Back Better Act, that would offer sizeable tax credits worth up to $12,500 to the buyers of new electric vehicles — as long as those cars and trucks are manufactured in the U.S.
“We will continue to make sure that this is well-known throughout the administration but also throughout Congress … I am doing my part in making sure I raise it with Secretary Blinken, all levels of government are doing so,” Joly said.
Joly said she had also raised the question of the Enbridge Line 5 pipeline, which the state of Michigan wants to close on environmental grounds. Blinken had been supportive, Joly said, but she did not give details.
Citing a 1977 pipelines treaty with the U.S., the Canadian government on October 4, Ottawa asked a U.S. federal judge to halt proceedings considering Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s order to shut down the controversial pipeline.
Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau said the government made the move to ensure Line 5 remains in operation. Line 5 is governed by a provision of the agreement guaranteeing uninterrupted transit of light crude oil and natural gas liquids between the two countries.
Between Trudeau’s concerns and those of Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, President Biden may end up getting quite an earful of irritants from both sides of the border.
