Obama traveling to Mexico for North American trade summit

BY JUSTIN SINK
President Obama will head to Mexico next month for a trade summit with leaders from Canada and Mexico.

The president will travel on Feb. 19 to Toluca, Mexico, to participate in the North American Leaders Summit.
“At the summit, the president looks forward to discussing with Mexican President Pena Nieto and Canadian Prime Minister Harper a range of issues important to the daily lives of all of North America’s people, including economic competitiveness, entrepreneurship, trade and investment, and citizen security,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

It will be the first such meeting since the new Mexican president assumed office in late 2012, and the seventh meeting of the group. Earlier in 2012, Obama hosted Harper and then-Mexican president Felipe Calderon in Washington in a meeting that focused on trade, energy, and anti-drug efforts.
During that gathering, Obama said he had prioritized increasing exports to the two nations with which the U.S. shares a border.
“I am pleased that our exports to Canada and Mexico are growing faster than our exports to the rest of the world,” Obama said.
Obama visited Mexico in May of last year, in a trip designed to focus on potential energy and trade partnerships rather than concerns over border security and the violent drug trade.