Canada to participate in ‘Three Amigos’ summit in Mexico City. Here’s what to know

At this North American Leaders' Summit, however, the threat of an "America First" approach to energizing the electric-vehicle industry has abated.

Familiar North American irritants — U.S. protectionism, intransigence on continental trade, irregular migration — return to the fore this week as the so-called “Three Amigos” meet for a trilateral summit in Mexico City.

Canada had an automotive axe to grind with the U.S. the last time Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, President Joe Biden and Mexico’s Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador all gathered at the White House in November 2021.

At this North American Leaders’ Summit, however, the threat of an “America First” approach to energizing the electric-vehicle industry has abated, unlike the worsening migration crisis Biden faces at the U.S.-Mexico border.

That likely means Trudeau will need to raise his voice a little to get Biden’s attention on matters of specific concern to Canada, said Scotty Greenwood, chief executive of the Canadian American Business Council.

“I think Canada has to try really hard to be as relevant as it wants to be in a conversation with the United States — there isn’t an automatic reason that Canada is front burner the way there is with Mexico,” Greenwood said.

“The normal diplomatic recitation of the issues we’d like to discuss together, combined with proximity and history, isn’t enough in the current context for Canada to be where it wants to be, in my judgment.”

Canada, of course, has a vested interest in many of the issues likely to dominate the agenda of the summit, which gets underway in earnest on Tuesday.

Like the U.S., it too is a destination country for illegal migrants from Latin America, and is just as eager to stanch the northerly flow of deadly fentanyl. And Trudeau’s Liberal government clearly shares the Biden administration’s ambitions when it comes to combating climate change.