“All too often we’re hearing rhetoric that ignores the enormous contributions that have been made by Mexican Americans and the enormous strengths we draw from the relationship”, Obama said, without naming the Republican billionaire who hopes to succeed him as president.
Advertisement
Later during an address in the Canadian parliament Obama acknowledged that some people had genuine concerns about globalisation.
Obama was greeted by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, before the trio ventured into a crowd of gathered schoolchildren to shake hands and exchange high-fives.
Yet it was Trump and his insistence that Americans are better served by reasserting independence that shadowed the leaders’ meetings at the annual North American Leaders’ Summit.
President Obama praised Mexico’s “remarkable leadership” on climate change and delivering on the Paris climate pact. James Cowan, among others.
At the conclusion of his speech, Obama was met with thunderous applause and chants of “four more years”.
Justin Trudeau has come up with a brand new handshake with Presidents Obama and Nieto, earning them the well-deserved nickname of the “Three Amigos”. Obama vetoed a bill that would’ve approve the pipeline’s path through the U.S.
Trump has promised to build a wall on the USA border with Mexico to stem the flow of illegal migrants into the United States, and rails regularly against the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) signed by his rival Hillary Clinton’s husband Bill when he was president.
“You shouldn’t think that is representative of how the American people think”, he said.
Canada is working with the USA and Mexico to “reduce illicit financial flows which weaken and threaten the integrity of the global financial sector to make sure that the sector is not open to exploitation by criminal or terrorist organizations”, another statement said.
“Isolationism can not bring prosperity to a society”, Pena Nieto said after bilateral talks with Obama.
“We see ourselves in each other and our lives are richer for it”, Obama said.
“A country is something that is built everyday out of shared values”, he said, twice, quoting Trudeau’s father.
Trudeau, Obama and Peña Nieto also presented a document titled “Economic prosperity – trade and competitiveness” in which they put forward a neoliberal trade agenda for the continent.
At an earlier meeting with Obama, Pena Nieto offered another sharp rebuke of the protectionist forces north of his country’s border and in Britain.
Obama said anti-immigrant sentiments had emerged in the US before, but didn’t stop immigrants from seeking out the opportunities the USA provides.
U.S. President Barack Obama and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto also took swipes at U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who has vowed to renegotiate or scrap the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) if he wins November’s election.
U.S. President Barack Obama followed by saying withdrawing from trade deals “is the wrong medicine” for those anxious about lower wages and the growing wage gap.
Efforts to curb global warming were expected to be a big part of the summit.
Advertisement
That’s a significant leap from last year’s 37 percent.
