“The integration of national economies into a global economy-that’s here, that’s done”, he said. “The question is: under what terms are we going to shape that economy?”
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Trump this week blamed globalization for the loss of millions of manufacturing jobs and threatened to extricate the USA from the North American Free Trade Agreement, in effect since 1994.
Feierstein said the leaders would work together to stave off ripple effects from the turmoil in Europe.
He says that despite their differences the US can not ask for a better friend or ally than Canada.
Adopting a clearly similar tone, style and message content, the three leaders on Wednesday presented a common front against the protectionist tendencies and xenophobia that, as Obama said, are advancing around the world.
Obama says similar rhetoric has been used in the past about Irish, Polish and Italian immigrants. “That’s not the measure of populism”, he said. “Or it’s just cynicism”.
Obama also met privately with Nieto before the two held a joint news conference.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Tuesday that he anticipates Britain’s vote to leave the European Union will come up in the leaders’ discussions, but “I don’t anticipate that it will be the focus of their conversations”.
The Mexican leader said he had simply been talking about how some politicians try to use demagoguery and political slogans to convince average citizens that there are easy solutions to hard problems.
During the meeting Peña Nieto compared Trump with Hitler and Mussolini, Obama slammed “isolationists and xenophobes” and “nativism” while host Trudeau described the meeting as productive and friendly but a “little poignant”. Moreover, Trudeau said that the three of them could only “protect” free trade by providing reliable results to help the global and individual economy. Obama and Pena Nieto have endorsed the controversial 12-country Pacific Rim treaty. Trump says he wants to tear up or renegotiate the deal, while Clinton has taken a populist tack on free trade during her campaign. “That’s done”, Obama said.
And while Obama had many glowing things to say about Trudeau and the Canada-United States relationship, it was his remarks on defence that stood out for he was, in essence, calling out both Trudeau’s government and its predecessor, the Harper government, for failing to live up to its North Atlantic Treaty Organisation commitments on defence spending.
Obama adviser Brian Deese said it was an unprecedented effort to develop a continentwide strategy on climate change and that the USA has the tools it needs, including tax credits for renewables, to reach the target.
Trump also made it clear Tuesday he’s no fan of the TPP either, calling it “a continuing rape of our country”.
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Obama’s remarks bookend his relationship with Canada in general and Ottawa in particular – it was the scene of his first presidential visit outside the U.S.in 2009, not long after he was elected the previous year.
