President Obama Delivers Remarks with President Peña Nieto And Prime Minister Harper
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President Peña Nieto: (As interpreted)
Your Excellency, Barack Obama, President of the United
States of America; Your Excellency,
Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada;
ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests:
We are here gathered with representatives
from the public, the private, and the social sectors.
All of you have walked along with
us in the construction road
to a more competitive North America.
And by this, we will have a higher level
of development for our peoples.
Members of the media, Mexico welcomes you with
open arms to celebrate
the North America Leaders Summit, Toluca 2014.
Besides being Toluca, my hometown, this is the
place where I was entrusted by the citizens
to serve as the governor of this state,
the state of Mexico.
The state of Mexico is a clear symbol
of the productive integration of North America due to its
geographic location and its connectivity.
Here we have seen the settlement
of advanced automobile facilities
and very important logistic hubs.
Both are a true example of value
chains, global value chains that make North America excel.
That is why, from Toluca, the three leaders
of North America confirm today our commitment to position our
region as one of the most dynamic and competitive
of the whole world.
I celebrate the fact that we have gathered here with
prominent representatives from the academia,
from the private sector, and from the civil society
from North America.
Your contribution has been vital
to bring Canada, the U.S.
and Mexico closer.
With a clear vision in mind, all of you pushed
from the onset the great idea that gathers
us today -- an integrated North America
with goals and shared efforts.
(Drop in audio feed.)
Once, the Free Trade Agreement area was the
largest free trade area with an unprecedented push
of trade exchanges, regional investment,
and the creation of millions of jobs.
With the same innovative spirit, two decades after,
we are bound to go beyond and enhance all together
the progress that each one of our countries has made,
because individually all our countries
have moved forward as well.
Therefore, the principal topics of this seventh
summit are very clear: First, inclusive
and shared prosperity.
Number two, new opportunity areas.
Number three, citizen security.
And fourth, regional and global topics.
It is upon these four topics today we will work
together to boost the economic growth
of our countries and a generation of quality jobs,
and by this, increase the wellbeing
of our societies.
Ladies and gentlemen, Canada, the United States
and Mexico share strengths that make us move forward.
We are a community of more than 450 million
inhabitants where talent and creativity
of our peoples excel.
Trade exchanges from the three countries are over
$1 trillion; in Spanish we use billions,
in English we use trillions.
We have the support and thrive of our
entrepreneurs and the capabilities
of technological innovation coming from our
universities and large companies.
We have principles, we have institutions
that make us be solid democracies.
We have natural resources, endless natural resources
and new opportunities so we can take advantage
of them sustainably.
All of these are factors that
lay a solid groundwork for North America's region,
and this is how we will make it a more attractive
and competitive region in the world
for the upcoming years.
I would like to invite you, respectfully, so that
each one of us from the area where you have the
responsibility to act, let's make North America
a more competitive and a more prosperous
region for the sake of the inhabitants
of our countries.
Thank you very much.
(applause)
President Obama: Good afternoon.
Buenas tardes.
Bonjour.
I want to thank Enrique for his extraordinary
hospitality and for bringing us here
to his beautiful home city.
I want to thank the people of Toluca and of Mexico
for your great hospitality.
We're all here on business,
which means I'm not here as long as I'd like.
I have not, for example, sampled some
of Toluca's legendary chorizo.
(laughter)
And hopefully the next time I stop by,
I'm going to be able to have some of that.
All of us -- Stephen, Enrique and I --
are focused on how we can deepen what are already
incredible ties between our three nations.
And I appreciate that all of you are here today,
because governments cannot do it alone.
The strength of the relationship between
Canada, Mexico and the United States is not just
a matter of government policy; it's not just
a matter of legislation.
There is an incredible richness
to the relationship that comes from our people,
from our businesses, from our commercial ties,
from the students who are traveling back and forth,
from the cultures that are shared between us.
And that strength
is in some ways unique throughout the world.
If you think about North America,
to have three borders this long in which we share
a common set of values, a common set of principles,
a commitment to democracy, a commitment to free markets,
a commitment to trade where we are allies and interact
peacefully, that is a precious gift.
And it's one that I think all three
of us are committed to building and nurturing
for future generations.
And for me this is very personal.
Some of my closest advisors and allies
and political friends are the children of Mexican
immigrants who have made an extraordinary life and
contribution in the United States.
My brother-in-law is Canadian, so you know
I have to like Canadians -- (laughter) --
although I will note that
I think we are going
to have both the men's hockey teams and
the women's hockey teams battling it out.
(laughter)
So for a very brief period of time,
I may not feel as warm towards Canadians
as I normally do --
at least until those matches are over.
But each of you experiences these
connections in very concrete ways.
Enrique already spoke about the volume of trade
that takes place, and the interactions between
our businesses, and the subsidiaries of companies
in each country that are operating in the other.
And so much of the cross-border trade that
exists is part of an integrated supply chain
that allows us, all three of us as countries,
to successfully sell our products and services
all around the world.
And so we have every incentive
to make this work.
And so a lot of our conversation
has focused on how do we reduce any continuing trade
frictions; how do we make sure that our borders are
more efficient; how do we make sure that the
educational exchanges between our young people
are expanded so that our young people understand
their opportunities will be brighter and expanded
if in fact they've had the opportunity
to study in Canada or to study in Mexico,
if they know Spanish, if they know French.
And we use these forums to make concrete progress.
Our staffs work incredibly hard
to make them successful.
But, frankly, until our leaders come around,
until the three of us meet, sometimes
it doesn't all get done.
And this becomes a forcing mechanism
for us to move forward on commercial progress,
joint security progress,
progress on educational and scientific exchanges.
But -- and this is the last point I want
to emphasize -- there are always going to be
parochial interests in each of our countries,
so that's appropriate and that will express itself
politically, and we have to be responsive
to our own constituencies.
If, in fact, we're going to continue to build
and strengthen the ties between our three
countries, then you can't just leave
it to politicians alone.
All of you are going to have to speak out and
speak up on the importance of this relationship.
We want to make sure that we're your partners and
allies in this process, but when people understand
what this means in terms of job creation in the
United States, job creation in Canada,
job creation in Mexico, how this relationship enhances
our security, how it improves our capacity
to heat our homes and grow our food and make sure
that young people have opportunities
in the future -- when they hear that from you,
it's that much more persuasive.
And so I would encourage all of you to continue
to make your voices heard.
You'll have certainly a partner in me,
and I'm sure that you'll have a partner
in Stephen and Enrique as well.
I thank you for participating here today.
And once again, Enrique, thank you
for the extraordinary hospitality
in this beautiful state and this beautiful city.
Muchas gracias.
(applause)
Prime Minister Harper: Bon après-midi.
Buenas tardes.
Good afternoon, everybody -- wonderful day and we're
delighted to be here in Toluca.
And it's easy to see why you're
so proud of your hometown.
It's a wonderful spot here.
And, Barack, it's always great to see you.
And I like my brothers-in-law, too.
(laughter)
And I'll probably like them
no matter who wins
the hockey game. (laughter)
Anyway.
I want to also thank all of you being here,
in particular, obviously, the delegation
that has accompanied me from Canada.
(As interpreted) Today we have this opportunity
to make this North American market more competitive.
You are entrepreneurs, you are job creators,
employment creators all over this continent.
(In English) --
with so many business people here,
as well as academics and others, to discuss how
to make North America, which is these three economies
combined, which is nearly one-quarter
of the world's economy more prosperous
and more competitive.
And it's particularly fitting that it would
be you as civil society and business leaders who would
lead such a discussion, for although
it was NAFTA and the Canada-U.S.
Free Trade Agreement before it that opened up
the opportunities, this is a trade alliance that,
in fact, consists of very little
top-down infrastructure.
It has been businesses, people on the ground,
social interactions, academic interactions
which have advanced relations, particularly
economic relations that go well beyond trade.
Today, Canadian, American and Mexican companies
do much more than sell things to each other.
You increasingly make things together through
integrated supply chains.
Now, for example, we talk about the fact, in Canada
obviously, that the Canadian-American trade
relationship is the largest in the world --
certainly, the U.S.
is our largest export market.
But Canadian exports to the United States contain
an average of 25 percent American content.
Likewise, Mexican exports to the United States
include an average
of 40 percent U.S. content.
(As interpreted) So this is why we want to tighten
our relationships and increase the
competitiveness in the region.
And we call on the entrepreneurs -- of
course, the Canadian and U.S.
companies are grabbing occasions and
opportunities in Mexico -- throughout the continent
to create employment seedbeds.
(In English) Jobs include organizations as diverse
as TransCanada, the Canadian Cattlemen's
Association and Beef Canada, the Canola
Council, Linamar, Scotiabank and many others
that I know are represented with us here
today.
And they have tremendous growth prospects in fields
such as energy, in education, agri-food,
information and communications
technologies, banking and financial services, and
many, many others, particularly when one
looks at not just the rapid transformation in
this country over the past 20 years, but the very
aggressive reforms that are being undertaken by
President Peña Nieto's administration.
(As interpreted) And having said this, the
world, the entire world is not what
it used to be in 1994.
(In English) Different realities from 20 years
ago are realities we must adapt to today.
They include obviously the ongoing uncertainty,
market uncertainty that remains from the global
recession and also from a global economy that
is much more competitive from many other regions.
(As interpreted) We must work together to be able
to break barriers and for the benefit
of our populations.
(In English.) And so, as Canadians, Mexicans and
Americans, we need to look for ways to work together
and to look forward.
Thank you for being here.
(applause)
