When President Barack Obama finished his speech to Canada’s Parliament on June 29, lawmakers gave him a send off to remember (video below).
Advertisement
They also discussed global trade.
The three then walked back along a red carpet and into Parliament’s Centre Block where the two leaders began a private meeting. The leaders warned against easy solutions peddled by “demagogues” who feed on economic anxiety.
“That’s nativism, or xenophobia, or worse”, said Obama.
Gathering against a backdrop of rising nationalism on both sides of the Atlantic, the three leaders are expected to announce a landmark agreement in which Canada, the United States and Mexico will pledge to use clean energy sources to generate half their electric power by 2025.
“The world is teaching us lessons”, Pena Nieto said. “It turned out to be a tragedy for mankind”.
“Isolationism can not bring prosperity to a society”, Pena Nieto said after bilateral talks with Obama. But he says it doesn’t “need to be panicky”.
Obama says financial markets have settled down since the historic vote almost a week ago and he credits preparation by central banks, finance ministers and the U.S. Treasury secretary. Still, he acknowledged there would be “genuine longer-term concerns” about global economic growth “if, in fact, Brexit goes through” – “Brexit” being short for “British exit”.
On Wednesday, Canada hosted the North American Leaders’ Summit in Ottawa, “in order to take coordinated action that will create sustainable economic growth, help transition to a low carbon economy, and provide better opportunities for Canadians, Americans, and Mexicans alike”.
“Unless you are one of the first Americans, unless you are a native American, somebody, somewhere in your past showed up from some place else”.
On Tuesday, Trump declared in a speech on the economy that if he were elected, he would radically renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico – and that if he could not, he would pull the United States out of the agreement.
Last week, Britain voted to leave the 28-nation European Union.
The three North American leaders, on the other hand, opposed Trump’s position by arguing that the United States is a land where everybody could come without distinction of nationalities. Obama said on Wednesday he was committed to ensuring the pact contained high labor and trade standards. “It is a strategy that has enhanced the economies of all our countries”. He also said the Trans-Pacific Partnership was “the greatest danger yet”.
“We will not rest until we have dismantled these networks of hate that have an impact on the entire civilized world”, Obama said.
Democrat Hillary Clinton has called Trump’s suggestion risky.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is poking fun at President Barack Obama’s “pending retirement”, eliciting a big smile and a thumbs-up from Obama. Obama’s term ends in January 2017.
With the dust settled on that, Obama and Trudeau and 26 other leaders in the alliance are turning their attention towards their summit next week in the Polish capital, which like many others in Eastern Europe is increasingly nervous about Russian aggression on its border.
“I’m not saying they shouldn’t answer”, Obama joked. Thanks also to GER, UK & US.
Obama says such talk ignores the enormous contributions by Mexican Americans to the U.S.
Advertisement
It followed a summit meeting with the leaders of Canada and Mexico in Ottawa. Sitting down earlier with Pena Nieto, Obama said the gun-and-bomb attacks show how little these “vicious organizations” have to offer.
