Embassy of the United States Ottawa, Canada

Mexican President Felipe Calderón (left), President Obama (center) and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Reprinted from IIP Digital.

President Obama met with Mexican President Felipe Calderón and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Washington April 2 to strengthen economic integration and tighten cooperation in fighting transnational crime.

Speaking to reporters at the White House after the summit, President Obama said the highest priority of their talks was "creating jobs and [economic] opportunity." He said trade among the three North American neighbors surpassed $1 trillion for the first time in 2011, and the three leaders are committed to making it bigger by making the movement of goods across borders faster and cheaper. He added that the three countries will streamline regulations that hamper business, especially small and medium-sized businesses, the primary engines of growth.

"This is going to help create jobs, and it's going to keep us on track to meet my goal of doubling U.S. exports," the president said.

President Obama said Mexico and Canada signaled their desire to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a free-trade group in the making. The United States is negotiating with eight Pacific nations -- Chile, Vietnam, Australia, Peru, Singapore, Malaysia, New Zealand and Brunei -- to drastically lower trade barriers. Japan has also expressed serious interest in joining the partnership.

Robert Pastor, a scholar of North American studies at American University in Washington, said the United States, Mexico and Canada need to integrate their markets and to synchronize their regulations to meet the challenges of competing with Asia. Canada and Mexico are the largest markets for U.S. goods, accounting for $479 billion last year.

Harper said Canada's desire to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership is part of Canada's "ambitious" trade agenda.

"We are currently in negotiations with over 50 countries around the world, including the European Union and Japan and India, so this is obviously a logical extension of our desire ... to dramatically broaden our free-trade relationships around the world," he said.

Calderón echoed President Obama's call for more open trade, saying he wants to see the North American economies deeply integrated in terms of investment, labor, technologies and natural resources. "Only then will we be able to have success in a world that competes ferociously by regions," he said.

The Mexican leader urged the United States to do more to toughen gun laws and fight gun trafficking. "During my government, we have seized over 140,000 weapons," Calderón said. "The vast majority of these weapons were sold in gun shops in the United States."

Transnational crime syndicates are fighting the Mexican military in a bloody struggle to deliver drugs into the United States and Canada. They are arming themselves with guns bought in the United States. "The security of North America is absolutely tied to each other," Calderón said.

The defense chiefs of the United States, Mexico and Canada recently met for their first trilateral talks, recognizing the need for a regional approach to fighting transnational crime.

Harper said his government is joining the fight against the narcotraffickers because the drug trade affects the health and safety of Canadian communities. "As these criminal networks are transnational, it's important that our attempts to fight them be equally transnational. That's why we work together on these issues," he said. The North American leaders said they will work with countries in Central America and the Caribbean to combat the scourge.