Main results of the X North American Leaders' Summit

During this Summit, the three leaders signed the Declaration of North America (DNA) in which they committed to strengthen the region through six pillars: (1) competitiveness, (2) climate change and environment, (3) migration, (4) regional security, (5) health, and (6) diversity, equity and inclusion.

Competitiveness and Economic Development

The three leaders pledged to continue cooperation, promote investment and innovation through:

• Organizing the first trilateral semiconductor forum in early 2023. The goal will be to align government policies and increase investment in supply chains across the region, involving senior industry and cabinet-level representatives....
• Coordinate semiconductor supply chain mapping efforts to develop a group understanding of each country's needs.
• Mapping of critical mineral resources in order to collect resource and reserve data. Geological Surveys will organize a trilateral workshop to share data and facilitate cooperation.
• Convene industry and academic experts in semiconductor, ICT, biomanufacturing and other industries to foster North American workforce development in 5 years.

Climate change and the environment

The three countries recognized the urgency of coordinating rapid action to build economies based on clean energy to respond to the climate crisis:

• Commit to reduce methane emissions from the solid waste and wastewater sector by at least 15% by 2030 from 2020 levels.
• Develop a Food Loss and Waste Reduction Action Plan by the end of 2025.
• Share information among the three countries on best practices to electrify and decarbonize public transport.
• Commit to trilateral cooperation to meet the joint commitment to conserve 30% of the world's land and ocean surface by 2030 and in indigenous-led conservation.
• Development of a North American clean hydrogen market, including cooperation on research and development, safety codes and standards, hydrogen clusters, green freight corridors, and integrated maritime operations.

Immigration

North American leaders reaffirmed their commitment to work together to achieve safe, orderly and humane migration in the region, including:

• Finalizing and implementing the Trilateral Action Plan on Expanding Partnerships for Development with practical steps to improve coordination and address the root causes of irregular migration.
• The announcement of a virtual platform to provide migrants with simplified access to legal channels. Migrants will have the information to enter legally.
• Sharing best practices to increase the speed, efficiency and fairness of asylum processing systems, and people with unviable protection claims to be removed quickly.
• Counter xenophobia and discrimination against migrants and refugees by promoting balanced public narratives about migrants and refugees to support their meaningful inclusion in the region.

Regional security

The three countries committed to coordinate actions and strategies to combat arms, drug, and human trafficking, as they represent a shared threat to the region, including:

• Resuming the North American Strategy to Combat Human Trafficking dialogue to improve cooperation against labor and sex trafficking in the region.
• Continue collaboration within the North American Drug Dialogue (NADD) to address illegal drug threats and strengthen public health approaches to drug use.
• Enhance trilateral collaboration to advance nuclear security in North America.
• Increase trilateral engagement to share information on cybersecurity best practices, including training public officials on these practices.

Health

Based on lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, leaders committed to share information and develop public policies to protect our countries against current and future health crises. These include revising the North American Animal and Pandemic Influenza Plan (NAPAPI) to strengthen North America's ability to respond to health security threats, including influenza and others.

Diversity, equity and inclusion

The three leaders committed to promote diverse, inclusive, equitable and democratic societies that combat racism by:

• Establishing a trilateral exchange of information among experts to share best practices and strategies to advance equity and racial justice in our public policies.
• Collaborating through regional and multilateral organizations to promote equity and justice.
• Combat violence against indigenous women and girls, including convening indigenous women to discuss their priorities and develop recommendations for the three governments.
• Combating violence against LGTBIQ+ people.

All 6 items were areas of great interest to the three countries in which they showed a clear spirit of cooperation.

Political tensions did not allow progress to be made in the dispute between the countries over the decisions on electric energy and, in particular, the decisions that the Mexican government has taken that violate different principles of the USMCA. There is an ongoing dialogue that will apparently facilitate some settlement of particular claims, but it remains to be seen if, at some point, the U.S. decides to move to the formal panel phase so that the dispute can be resolved in technical terms. There is no specific deadline for that to happen.

We would like to highlight the fact that a consensus has been reached on the fact that the North American area is one that links the future for the three countries and that there are conditions to achieve in the following years and decades one of the most developed areas in the world.

Authored by Juan Francisco Torres Landa and Omar Guerrero.