Return to Transcripts main page

CNN NEWSROOM

North American Leaders Summit Press Conference. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired June 29, 2016 - 15:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


[15:30:00] ENRIQUE PENA NIETO, MEXICO PRESIDENT (through translator): Mexico has proposed that this program uses global entry platform that Canada and the United States already have. And this year we will implement the electronic kiosks platform that is already present in different airports in the United States and Canada. This system and result will be used in North America as a whole. And this will be a system that will enable and expedite the flow and transit of individuals in North America.

Finally, I would like to use an example to describe our level of integration. The preservation of the monarch butterfly conservation. This is a species that in its pilgrimage we can see how our countries are intertwined. And back in our last summit, we agreed that we would take care of this species and make sure that in its journey the monarch butterfly from Canada flying through the United States, all the way down to Mexico and the figures speak for itself. In the year 2014 in our country, the area where butterflies reach that eventually reach only covered less than one hectare, 0.6 hectares. Due to the efforts made by our trilateral task force created for that purpose last year, this year's -- the surface in my country now extends to 4.1 hectares and we are en route that is by 2018, this figure would grow to six hectares and eventually that would be our goal for the monarch butterfly reserve in Mexico. And by that we will be making sure the migration of this specie is the symbol of the relationship that Canada and the United States and Mexico have.

The North American leaders' summit bears witness that isolated national efforts are insufficient if we want favorable results for the benefit of our societies. It is better to work together as a region. We all know that this will be global challenges. Isolationism is not the solution. In contrast with what happens in other corners of the world, in countries in North America we have decided to be closer, to work as a team, and to complement each other, and to make progress together as the most competitive region in the world. Thank you very much.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Obama.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, good afternoon. Bonjour. Buenos Aires (ph).

I want to thank my friends and partners, President Trudeau and President Pena Nieto. To Justin and the people of Ottawa in Canada, thank you for your wonderful hospitality. This is my fourth North American leaders' summit, and the first that Canada is hosting in nearly a decade. And this reflects the new commitment that Prime Minister Trudeau has brought to our shared vision of a strong and integrated North America. So thank you so much, Justin.

Let me start by once again commenting on the horrific terrorist attack that took place yesterday in Istanbul's main international airport which is one of the busiest airports in the world. The prayers of the American people are with the people of Turkey, the people of Istanbul, and all those who were affected by this terrible crime.

We have offered all assistance that we have available to our ally, Turkey. And we stand prepared to assist them during this difficult time. We are still learning all the facts, but we know this is part of our broader, shared fight against terrorist networks. And we will continue to work closely with Turkey to root them out. Meanwhile, we are going to do what' is necessary to protect our people. I'm confident that we can and we will defeat those who offer only death and destruction. And we will always remember, even as there are those trying to divide us, that we are strong weather we come together and work toward a better world together.

We are reminded of this basic fact at this summit. Combined, our three nations are home to nearly 480 million people. We are bound together by family, including millions of immigrants who trace their roots to each other's countries. We are not only among each other's top trade partners, we are a global hub of innovation with integrated economies and supply chains and co-production that span our borders.

On every security and global challenge, we are partners. And we are united by common values of democracy and pluralism and a commitment to human dignity. Over the past eight years I have worked to strengthen our partnerships with our friends in the Americas, and that begins with strengthening our relationship with Canada and Mexico. During my administration, for example, we boosted U.S. exports to Canada and Mexico by about 50 percent. That supports about 2.8 million American jobs. Today as Justin and Enrique described, we agreed to build on that progress in several key areas.

First, we agreed to make it even easier to do business together so that our region is even more competitive. We are bringing more advanced technologies and automation to our border crossings which will reduce wait times for travelers and make it more affordable to trade. By the end of this year we'll have a single trusted traveler program for all three of our countries which will make it easier to travel while at the same time improving security. We will continue to line our standards and regulations which is especially important for small businesses who want to export more. We are going to do more together to promote women entrepreneurs and minority-owned businesses to succeed as well. We are going to keep expanding our educational exchanges among our students.

As has been mentioned, we discussed the transpacific partnership. The politics of trade are always difficult in every country. I don't know any country where there aren't going to be some folks who argue against trade. But we all believe that in an integrated, global economy, the goal is not for us to try to shut ourselves off from the world, but rather, to work together to raise standards around the world for workers and for the environment. And that's exactly what TPP does. It is the right thing to do. And we're going to keep working for it.

Given the flood of steel and aluminum on global markets, however, it points to the fact that free trade also has to be fair trade. And our three countries agreed to work together on a range of trade measures to enforce our rights and protect our workers, and ensure a level playing field for the steel and aluminum industries here in North America.

And given the vote of the United Kingdom to leave the European Union, our economic teams are going to continue to work together so that we remain focused on keeping our economies growing and making sure that the global financial system is stable, something I am confident that we can do.

Second, we are making sure that North America remains a leader in the fight against climate change. And I could not be prouder of the work that Justin Enrique have done to help realize this important goal. All three of our nations are now committed to joining the Paris agreement this year so we can bring it into force. We are announcing a new goal across our continents of generating 50 percent of our electricity with clean power by 2025 which is a bold goal but is an imminent will I achievable goal.

The United States government is making an effort to purchase more clean energy for federal facilities and more clean and efficient government vehicles, and all three of our countries are committed to reducing methane emissions from the oil and gas sector by 40 to 45 percent by 2025.

Third, we are going to do more to make sure that we are looking after the safety and health of our citizens from the danger of illicit drugs. And we are particularly focused right now on the epidemic of opioid abuse, including heroin, that's just taking so many lives and devastating so many families. Our teams will meet in the fall to make sure we are coordinating our efforts, including access to treatment. And as always we will continue to be relentless against the criminals and narco traffickers that are inflicting so much violence on our communities.

Fourth, we're deepening our cooperation on regional and global challenges. Joint efforts against diseases like Zika, helping our Central American partners address poverty and violence that have led to so many families and children making an extraordinarily dangerous trip to flee difficult circumstances.

I want to thank Justin and Enrique for the government's strong support of our new approach to Cuba. And I'm also glad that our countries have agreed to do more around the world to address the refugee crisis and expanding our own peacekeeping effort.

In our own hemisphere, with the historic agreement in Colombia, a major step toward peace, our three nations are going to help the Colombians remove land mines as just one example of efforts to fortify what has been a very difficult negotiation.

And given the very serious situation in Venezuela and the worsening plight of the Venezuelan people, together we are calling on the government and opposition to engage in meaningful dialogue and urge the Venezuelan government to respect the rule of law and the authority of the national assembly. Political prisoners should be released. The Democratic process should be respected. And that includes legitimate efforts to pursue a recall referendum consistent with Venezuelan law.

In closing we are determined to keep building on the progress that's been made at so many of the previous summits. By the way, Enrique, I love the story about monarch butterflies. They're not just any species. They are spectacular and we want to make sure that our children, our grandchildren can see them as well.

We are creating what we call the North American caucus which means our three governments will meet on a more regular basis. We are going to continue to deepen our trilateral cooperation in this hemisphere and around the world. And in short, we are going to do more to speak with one united American voice on the world stage. We couldn't have better partners than Justin and Enrique. I'm confident that we're going to continue to advance regional cooperation and integration. That's not just going to be good for our own people, probably good for the world as well. (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE).

[15:41:00] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): So we are now ready to start with a question period. Our first question is from Canadian journalist Richard Madden from CTV news.

RICHARD MADDEN, JOURNALIST, CTV NEWS: Good afternoon, gentlemen. One of the candidates who wants to replace President Obama has already said he wants to renegotiate NAFTA and walk away from the transpacific partnership. All suggesting that perhaps there is a growing disconnect between the pro-trade message you are selling here and the protectionist voices we are hearing in the U.S. and possibly the Brexit in the UK. So my question is to all three of you. What is your strategy to reverse this growing sentiment and Prime Minister Trudeau, I'll ask you (INAUDIBLE).

JUSTIN TRUDEAU, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER (through translator): first of all, our strategy is to highlight how much trade and positive agreements among our nations are good, not only for the economy of the world and the economy of our countries, but it's also good for our citizens. We know that industries that export more goods pay salaries that are 50 percent higher than sectors that don't export. We also know that trade gives rise to good jobs, innovation, and progress for individuals as well.

In our conversations today and yesterday with President Pena Nieto, we signed agreements and held conversations that allowed us to remove visas for Mexican visitors to Canada. This will have effects on all Canadians who live in communities that welcome Mexican tourists. It will also allow Canadian agriculture producers to have access to the Mexican beef market. These are examples of the cooperation that we say is good for the North American market, but also good for the entire world. And it's with this in mind that it is important to come together, to talk together about the future of this world where we are more and more connected. And we have to agree more and more in this world.

The kinds of protectionism that we are seeing around the world is indeed to highlight that when we come together like in events like this north American leaders' summit, there is an opportunity to come together in ways that are beneficial for the global economy, that are beneficial for our countries' economies, but mostly that are beneficial for individual citizens. We know that export intensive industries pay on average 50 percent higher wages than non-exporting industries. We know that trade leads to innovation and opportunities for communities, for individuals, for workers. And we need to make sure that we're dealing with challenges and problems as they come up. And that's where a constant engaged dialogue comes with positive outcomes.

Just yesterday with president Pena Nieto, we were able to establish forward movement on two difficult issues between our -- not just our countries but our peoples, which will have beneficial impact on both sides of the deal. We will be lifting visas for visitors to Mexico, to Canada from Mexico, which will have a positive impact on communities across the country as we welcoming tourists, but also we have been able to secure access for Canadian farmers to sell their beef in Mexico.

These are good, concrete things that happen when we pull together and deal with important issues. And always there will be people trying to get us all to turn inwards. But the fact is, our world is interconnected in so many ways that it is much better that we engage, that we work through our challenges together because really, that's how we end up with the kind of growth that benefits our countries and our citizens.

[15:46:07] PENA NIETO (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): I'll be very brief in addressing your question. There are some times that what one has has not been valued enough until you lose them. And what this integration has managed to achieve in North America is precisely to give to our three countries more opportunities and give our societies more opportunities by growing trade, by having more investment in our three countries. In our three countries we see opportunities growing and reaching out more people, academic exchanges and the possibility of studying abroad in any of the three countries represented here by three heads of state.

Our outcomes of our trilateral agreements, I believe that we are all aware of how the reactions are what happened in the UK and there is still uncertainty. The outcome of the referendum is uncertain. But when someone values what you had, then when we see such reaction. So we are here trying to innovate, to be more competitive because we are competitors, yes, but we have complimentary economies, and that would give more development to our societies. I believe that this is the main goal of our efforts. The agreements made here are not only agreements made by three heads of states, we are building roads, we are building the foundation so that our society can have strong foundations and get - go further. And that makes a great contrast when some other countries choose isolationism, that you choose protection measure and they are not letting their societies project themselves to other kinds of scenarios.

OBAMA: Let me make couple of points. First of all, the integration of national economy is into a global economy. That's here. That's done. And - so the question is not whether or not there is going to be an international global economy, there is one. Technology, travel, massive cargo containers that can ship goods back and forth, the fact that a company can move capital around the world and the blink of an eye. The fact that an engineer can send plans to the other side of the world in an instant to a colleague. Those are facts.

So we have an integrated economy already, the question is under what terms are we going to shape that economy. And it is my firm belief that making sure that how we trade, how we exchange goods, it is my firm belief that shaping those in accordance with the values that our three countries care deeply about is going to be good for us. And as trying to abandon the field and toward the driver who drives us, is going to be bad for us.

Now, with respect to Brexit, I think it is important to point out that those who argued by leaving the European Union are the same folks who the very next day are insisting don't worry, we'll still have access to the single market. So apparently their argument was not against trade generally, they just didn't want any obligations to go with the access to the free market. And it is important for us not to draw easy analogies between what happened in the U.K., and the EU, versus what is happening between our three countries in terms of trade or what is happening in terms of us attempting to access Asian markets through TPP. That is point number one.

Point number two. Ordinary people who have concerns about trade have a legitimate (INAUDIBLE) about globalization. Because the fact is that as the global economy is integrated, that we have seen are trend lines across the advanced economies of growing inequality and stagnant wages. And a smaller and smaller share of overall productivity and growth going to workers and a larger portion going to the top one percent. And that is a real problem because if that continues, the social cohesion and political consensus need for liberal market economies starts breaking down. So they are right to be concern about. That I am concern about, that Justin is concern about and Enrique is concern about. The question is what do you do about it? And the prescription of withdrawing from trade deals and focusing solely on your local market, that is the wrong medicine. First of all because it is feasible because our auto plans, for example, were shut down if we don't have access to some parts, in other parts of the world. So we would lose jobs and the amount of disruption that would be involved would be enormous.

Secondly, we would become less efficient. Cost of our goods in our own countries would become much more expensive. And this nostalgia about an era when everybody was working in manufacturing jobs, and you didn't need a college degree, and you could go in. And as long as you worked hard, you could support a family and live a middle class life. That has been undermined far more by automation that has been by outsourcing or the swift of jobs to low income or low wage countries.

And the steel industry is producing as much steel in the United States as it ever was, it just needs one-tenth the workers it used to. And this is why, you know, my push back on both the left and the right when it comes to protectionism or anti-trade arguments is you are right to be concerned about the trends, but what you're prescribing will not work. And there is a better way of doing this. And the better way of doing it is countries like ours that have high labor standards, and high environmental standards, and strong protection of intellectual property and rule of law, we have to get to get out there and help to shape those rules so that they work for our workers and our businesses. Because if we don't, China will write the rules and then they may not have the same regard for the values that we care about. Other countries will write the rules in ways that disadvantage our workers and our businesses.

In Asia right now, there are whole lot of tariffs that keep our products up, but because we happen to be some of the most open nations in the world, they are selling us (INAUDIBLE). So we can't disengage, we have to engage more. And if we combine that with investments in education and tax policies that are fair and making sure that college is affordable and re-strengthening the safety net and we are rebuilding our infrastructure which is jobs that cannot be exported. And we are making investments and research and development. And we are building an inclusive society in which everybody has a fair shot. That's how we're going to solve these problems.

And what is absolutely true is that too many folks who have been in- charge around the world have neglecting that side of the equation. So we are going to keep pushing hard to shape an international order that works for our people. But we are not going to be able to do that by cutting off trade because that is going to make all of us poor.

[15:56:21] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, we can go to the second question, (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Good afternoon. I would like to ask you we have the election process going on in the United States, there is an anti-immigrant and anti-Mexican rhetoric by Donald Trump. I would like to ask you, did you address this issue during your meeting? And how can you ring fence the agreements that you have described and pass it over (INAUDIBLE)? What would happen if someone who is not in agreement, he has said that NAFTA, they would step back from NAFTA, what did you address in your meetings, thank you?

PENA NIETO (through translator): I would like to begin by saying that we did address the issue and we have discussed it during the state visit. Specifically, I would speak on behalf of Mexico. My government will respect the election process which is a domestic process for the United States. We are getting ready to work with whomever turns out to be the president of the United States. And the best way to ring fence the progress and agreements that have been made so far is to explain clearly and let the people feel the beauties and the benefits of all of the work that we do, most of what we do today is not random. It might be a gift from God, but it is actually the outcome of our work of the foundations and the work we have done so far. And I believe that in the end of the day, when we manage to achieve today would teach us a lesson. It would be for the Americans to define who would provide them better guarantees to move into the path towards growth and development based upon what we have manage to build in the past.

OBAMA: Well, I think Enrique is right. Whoever becomes president of the United States is going to have a deep, strong interest in having a strong relationship with Mexico. It is our neighbor, our friend and one of our biggest trading partners.

I think I made myself clear setting aside whatever the candidates are saying that America is a nation of immigrants. That is our strength. Unless you're one of the first Americans, unless you are a Native American, somebody, somewhere in your past showed up from someplace else. And they didn't always have papers. And the genius of America has been to define ourselves not by what we look like, or what our last name is, or what faith we practice, but our adherence to a common creed, a belief that all people are created equal. A belief of free speech, and freedom of assembly and democracy, and (INAUDIBLE) and tolerance and rule of law.