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(L-R) Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Mexico's President Felipe Calderon and US President Barack Obama at the North American Leaders' Summit - Source: Reuters
Leaders of the United States, Mexico and Canada vowed to fight
the spread of the H1N1 swine flu and combat drug gangs but differed
on trade disputes at their three amigos summit.
US President Barack Obama, Mexican President Felipe Calderon and
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper met against a backdrop of an
economic downturn in each country with a US rebound key to a
regional improvement.
"The global recession has cost jobs and hurt families from Toronto
to Toledo to Tijuana," said Obama at a joint news conference as the
leaders pledged to work together to prepare for a summit of 20
leading economies in Pittsburgh next month.
Facing the possibility of a resurgence in the H1N1 virus this
autumn likely to lead to more deaths, the three leaders pledged
that their governments will share information and try to instruct
their peoples on how to prepare.
"H1N1, as we know, will be back this winter," Calderon said.
"We are getting prepared, all three countries, to face in a
responsible manner this contingency and abate its impacts for our
people."
The three leaders vowed to respect the North American Free Trade
Agreement that unites their countries in trade, but differed on
some issues.
Harper raised with Obama, Canada's concerns about the Buy American
provisions in the $US787 billion US economic stimulus plan that the
Canadians fear could shut out Canadian companies.
Canada is the United States' largest trading partner.
Obama said it was important to keep in mind that no sweeping
protectionist measures have been imposed and that the Buy American
provisions were limited to the stimulus and have in no way
endangered the billions of dollars in trade between our two
countries.
Drug war
A central focus of the talks was also the fight against Mexican
gangs dominating the drug trade over the US border and up into
Canada, often with US-made weapons.
Obama and Harper rallied around Calderon in his government's drive
against warring drug gangs that has raised concerns about human
rights abuses as the body count soars.
Calderon said his government is doing its best to respect human
rights while trying to destroy the enemy.
"We know that we are destroying their criminal organization.
We're hitting them hard. We're hitting at the heart of the
organizations."
And all three underscored their objective of seeing the peaceful
resolution of what Obama said was clearly a coup against Honduran
President Manuel Zelaya.
Obama bristled at a reporter who repeated that some critics said
the United States has not been strong enough on the issue.
"The same critics who say that the United States has not intervened
enough in Honduras are the same people who say that we're always
intervening and the Yankees need to get out of Latin America,"
Obama said.
"You can't have it both ways."
Calderon, in his opening statement, indirectly raised a
cross-border trucking dispute over allowing Mexican trucks to
transit into the United States.
He said all three leaders believe it is essential to abide by NAFTA
and to resolve the pending topics impeding greater regional
competitiveness.
Obama had made clear to Calderon that he was working with the US
Congress to resolve what he considers to be legitimate safety
concerns with Mexican trucks.
He said the United States, Mexico and Canada should take steps to
avoid protectionism, saying we need to expand that trade, not
restrict it.
The three leaders issued a statement on joint efforts to combat
climate change with an eye toward a global summit on the topic in
Copenhagen in November.
"We, the leaders of North American reaffirm the urgency and
necessity of taking aggressive action on climate change," they
said.
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