North American heads of state met in Mexico on Wednesday to discuss the future of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and Presidents Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico and Barrack Obama of the United States, widely known as the “three amigos,” commemorated two decades of NAFTA in Toluca, Mexico and discussed what’s next for North American trade, among other issues.
Perhaps the most significant outcome of the meetings were the negotiations over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a trading pact between 12 countries in Asia and the the Americas. “The Trans-Pacific Partnership is an opportunity to open our markets and to open ourselves to new markets in the Asia-Pacific region, one of the fastest growing and most promising in the world,” President Obama said.
Among other issues, two that were anticipated hot-topics were travel and energy. A trusted traveler program was proposed, which would allow frequent travelers more ease when moving between borders. Also agreed upon was improvement in customs data and infrastructure to decrease drug movement across borders.
The energy discussion hit a snag, however, given that Obama and Harper still have yet to reach a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline project, which has been a source of tension between the two countries.
Read more about NAFTA in the Winter 2014 issue of Americas Quarterly.