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President George W. Bush is joining the conservative leaders
of Canada and Mexico, in his final North American Leaders' Summit, in order to
discuss trade, economic, security, food and product safety, energy and
environment related issues.
Bush has chosen New Orleans as the location of the summit to
prove the city has restored since being devastated by Hurricane Katrina, but
the city’s struggling following the disaster is not expected to be a major
topic to be discussed at the conference.
Bush’s administration was strongly criticized for responding
too slowly to the hurricane that ravaged the city in August 2005.
The main subject that President Bush and his Canadian and
Mexican counterparts are going to focus on is the 14-year-old North American
Free Trade Agreement.
"We'd like to enhance and strengthen an already dynamic
and strong relationship, to deepen the cooperation by building on the common
interests of our citizens," said Dan Fisk, senior director of Western
Hemisphere Affairs for the National Security Council, according to the Houston Chronicle.
"The North American relationship works; we believe it works well for all
three countries, but we also believe we can make it work better."
The three countries share the largest trading partnership in
the world, with a total of $1 trillion a year.
According to the Associated Press, Bush said he planned to
talk Monday to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President
Felipe Calderon about expanding trade in the Western Hemisphere.
The summit comes in a period of economic decline for the
United States, and many blame the North American Free Trade Agreement for the recession
the country is heading toward.
Both Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and
Hillary Clinton have announced their intentions of renegotiating NAFTA or even
abandoning it, as a means to pressure Canada and Mexico to protect the workers
and the environment more. But Bush completely disagrees with the idea,
considering it isolationist and reckless.
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