Americas

U.S., Canada, Mexico Cooperation

From left, Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Mexican Foreign Secretary Jose Antonio Meade walk toward a lunch appointment at the Union Oyster House restaurant in Boston, Jan. 31, 2015.

The United States, Canada and Mexico are more than neighbors; they are partners in the collective effort to create a prosperous North American and inter-American community.

The United States, Canada and Mexico are more than neighbors; they are partners in the collective effort to create a prosperous North American and inter-American community.

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U.S., Canada, Mexico Cooperation

One of the challenges facing all three nations is violent extremism. Canada faced a terrorist attack in Ottawa and Quebec last fall, and Mexico has too often seen brutal violence from drug cartels. "All three governments," said U.S. Secretary of State Kerry during a recent ministerial meeting in Boston with his Canadian and Mexican counterparts, "are determined to protect our citizens through vigilance, the sharing of information, and the support that we provide to partners overseas in order to fight this violence at its roots."

The United States, Canada, and Mexico discussed the wide range of efforts that are underway to defeat violent extremism, including the progress of the Counter-ISIL coalition in Kobani, where the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant was forced to acknowledge its own defeat. With this experience in mind, the United States and its allies will cooperate and share information to defeat violent transnational criminal organizations and ensure enhanced global respect for the rule of law.

Continued economic growth hinges on expanding cross-border trade. Under NAFTA, U.S. exports to Canada and Mexico support hundreds of thousands of American jobs. Other agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, are essential to grow trade further. TPP is a state-of-the-art agreement with strong labor standards and environmental commitments that would connect more than 40 percent of global GDP and one-third of global trade.

In Boston, the United States, Canada, and Mexico also discussed how to best preserve and protect the environment through the use of clean energy while at the same time promoting economic growth.

The United States looks forward to working with Mexico, Canada, and the inter-American community to advance respect for human rights in Cuba. All three nations also committed to promote their shared democratic values and defend human rights, to strengthen the Organization of American States, and undertake efforts to ensure a successful Summit of the Americas in Panama in April.