The US president, Joe Biden , and his Mexican counterpart, Andrés Manuel López Obrador , will hold their first “virtual” meeting tomorrow, marked by the change of policies in Washington with the new Democratic Administration, and that will be focused on migration and economy .
This is the second bilateral meeting of Biden after his arrival at the White House in January, and after the one held this week with Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister of Canada.
“The two leaders will discuss the cooperation in migration , joint development efforts in southern Mexico and Central America, recovery from COVID – 19, and economic cooperation , “said White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki in a statement.
The meeting, to be held virtually due to the COVID pandemic – 19 , t The objective will be to press the button to restart relations between neighboring countries.
“ It is difficult to think of a more important relationship , nor in two other countries that are intertwined in so many extraordinary ways and that really have a shared destiny , which falls on us to help progress ”, The Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, pointed out this Friday in a previous virtual meeting with his Mexican counterpart, Marcelo Ebrard.
Biden announced that his first measures in immigration matters have as aim to dismantle the legacy of his predecessor, Donald Trump (2017 – 2021), by announcing a set of orders directed to reunite the separated families , restore the system of asylum and address the causes of immigration with its regional partners .
“I am committed to working (….) to correct the negligence of the previous Administration ior and return justice, humanity and order to our immigration system, “said the new US president two weeks ago.
Reform immigration after Trump
Despite his aggressive anti-immigration rhetoric, López Obrador managed to maintain a good relationship with Trump , although at times he had to give in to pressure from Washington.
This was the case of the agreement of the Migrant Protection Protocol (MPP) program, also known as such as “ Stay in Mexico “, for which more than 60, 000 asylum seekers in the US were returned to that country to wait for their process, or the requirement that Mexico strengthen its southern border to stop the arrival of immigrants from Central America.
From the past 11 February, the US returned to the attention of asylum seekers returned to the neighbor country under that program, and Biden has promised resources to revitalize the economy in Central America in order to tackle one of the causes of migration.
The conversation between the two leaders will take place days after Biden presented his ambitious immigration reform proposal in the United States, which should be debated in the Congress.
Among its main issues are to open a eight-year process for the 11 millions of undocumented people in the country can achieve citizenship , as well as grant an immediate legal residence for immigrants without papers who arrived in the country as children, known as “dreamers”, TPS beneficiaries and farmworkers.
This is the most ambitious attempt to push through immigration reform since 2013, when the bill spurred on by then-President Barack Obama (2009 – 2017), with Biden as vice president, was shipwrecked in the House of Representatives despite having obtained the approval of the Senate.
Compliance with the commercial pact
In the economic sphere, Biden assumes power with the renewed commercial agreement between Mexico, the United States and Canada, the T-MEC , in force and seen from Washington as a solid opportunity to strengthen trade relations.
The economy of Mexico is strongly dependent on the United States , since it is its main trading partner and the country to which three-quarters of its exports go, and where 38 millions of Mexicans live and work, with the consequent weight in the flow of remittances.
One of the requirements of the trade agreement is that Mexico applies a labor reform that democratizes unions, purges collective contracts and increases wages in order to avoid unfair competition with the United States, something that the current Democratic Administration will be especially attentive to.
In fact, the one nominated by Biden as the US Foreign Trade Representative, Katherine Tai, was one of the main involved in the drafting of the labor clauses of the agreement that replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement.