President Barack Obama will travel to Toluca, Mexico on February 19 for the annual North American Leaders Summit, the White House announced Tuesday. The president will meet with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to discuss economic competitiveness, entrepreneurship, trade and investment, and citizen security.
The White House has applauded recent reforms championed by President Peña Nieto, including the recently passed energy reform that the Mexican executive has promoted to boost the growth in the region’s second largest economy.
While increasing trade is expected to be the main focus of the meeting—Canada and Mexico account for about 33 percent of all U.S. exports—border security is likely to play a large role in the discussions. Leaders may also privately discuss the recent slew of deadly clashes between Mexican soldiers and federal police and vigilante groups known as autodefensas (self-defense groups) in the state of Michoacan.
The summit, the seventh such meeting, marks the first meeting of all three North American leaders since Peña Nieto assumed the presidency in 2012. It will take place just one month after the 20 year anniversary of the NAFTA agreement that tripled trade between the three countries.
