US, Canada, Mexico stress trade at North America summit

US President Barack Obama and leaders of Mexico and Canada pledged to improve their massive North American trade links at a summit shadowed by friction between the neighbors.

The one-day talks hosted by President Enrique Pena Nieto ...in Toluca, near Mexico City, sought to find ways to revitalize the 20-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Pena Nieto said the summit with Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper aimed to make North America the "most competitive region in the world."

The three governments have no plans to reopen NAFTA, which is worth $1 trillion a year, proposing instead to modernize it through a 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership project that Washington hopes to complete this year.

But Obama conceded that he faced opposition to the deal from "elements" in his own Democratic party...

The three leaders agreed on issues ranging from making trade flow more easily within North America, protecting the region's Monarch butterfly and continuing cooperation on security...

But sources of tensions remained unresolved in what has been billed the "three amigos" summit in the past.

Obama gave no hint to Harper as to whether his administration would finally make up its mind on the Keystone XL pipeline project, which would carry crude from Canada's oil sands across the continental United States to Texas.

The US leader repeated that US Secretary of State John Kerry is still deliberating even though a State Department report last month concluded that the pipeline would not significantly worsen global warming...

Mexico and Canada have their own dispute over tough visa requirements imposed by Ottawa on Mexican travelers in 2009 to curb an influx of refugee applications.

Pena Nieto called on Harper after a bilateral meeting in Mexico City on Tuesday to negotiate a solution to eliminate the visas "in a near future."

Despite these disagreements, Pena Nieto said the summit allowed the three leaders to strengthen their friendship..

The allies issued a joint declaration saying they would create a "North American Trusted Traveler Program" to facilitate trips for their citizens, promote student exchanges and improve border infrastructure...

This has been excerpted from the 20 February 2014 article by Digital Journal, and is available in its entirety at http://www.digitaljournal.com/news/world/us-canada-mexico-stress-trade-at-north-america-summit/article/371933.