Biden, Trudeau discuss electric vehicle dispute at summit

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden launched into three-way diplomacy with the leaders of Canada and Mexico on Thursday, celebrating the return of near-annual summits that went dormant during the Trump years. But there were still plenty of differences to sort through over trade, immigration and other matters.

Biden met first with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, calling their two countries’ relationship one of the easiest in the early going of his presidency.

But as Biden and Trudeau sat down for talks, the president also confirmed that the two leaders had to discuss their differences over proposed electric vehicle tax incentives in his massive social services and climate bill that are causing concern in Ottawa.

“We’re going to talk about that,” Biden said. “It hasn’t even passed yet in the House.”

Biden later met with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and the three leaders were then meeting together. Trudeau and López Obrador met separately with Vice President Kamala Harris, too.

Trump had an icy relationship with López Obrador’s predecessor, pressing Enrique Peña Nieto to never publicly say that Mexico wouldn’t pay for a southern U.S. border wall.

But López Obrador appeared to reach a one-issue understanding with Trump: Mexico slowed the flow of Central American migrants trying to reach the U.S. border, and Trump often appeared to turn a blind eye to just about every other facet in the complicated relationship.

López Obrador offered warm words for Biden when they appeared before the cameras at the start of their meeting Thursday. The two leaders discussed Mexico’s relations with the U.S. under Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt, before the portraits of both that Biden has displayed prominently in the Oval Office.

The Mexican president drove home that Biden is treating his government with respect, something he noted has not always been a given in the two countries’ long history.