Reply #6: As if the Euro never happened either. [View All]

[Elspeth]

August 21, 2007
Bush’s Talks With Neighbors Are Overshadowed by Storm
By JIM RUTENBERG

OTTAWA, Aug. 20 — President Bush met in a wooded resort east of here on Monday with his counterparts to the north and the south — Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada and President Felipe Calderón of Mexico — to discuss the drafting of emergency border provisions, the stalled international trade talks, and immigration.

But Hurricane Dean’s expected landfall on the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico threw into doubt three-way talks that were scheduled for Tuesday. Mr. Calderón said Monday that he would return home early Tuesday to be on hand to deal with any fallout from the storm, and organizers of the meeting were scrambling to accommodate him.

And officials said Mr. Bush had pledged to offer financial and logistical assistance if Mr. Calderón asks for it. The United States had already dispatched a contingent of officials to help assess Mexico’s needs.

Mr. Calderón’s planned absence only did that much more to deflate expectations for the meeting here. Officials played down the likelihood that there would be any major announcements on any policy issues at a scheduled press briefing Tuesday.

Gordon D. Johndroe, the National Security Council spokesman, told reporters aboard Air Force One that they would discuss new rules to expedite border crossings after natural disasters, terrorist strikes or epidemics, to try to avoid the sorts of tie-ups that slowed border crossings and stalled commerce after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Speaking with reporters in Montebello after the meetings, Dan Fisk, the senior director for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the National Security Council, declined to elaborate on the potential agreement, saying he did not want to pre-empt an announcement presumably to be made Tuesday.

But the United States has thornier border issues with its neighbors. Mr. Fisk said that Mr. Bush “reaffirmed that we will be going ahead and implementing” the United States’ new rules requiring citizens to have passports when re-entering its borders. The Canadians have voiced concern that such rules would impede trade and tourism, but they were mandated by Congress.

Mr. Calderón has voiced even more concern about tighter border restrictions and the political pressure in the United States to crack down on illegal immigrants and their employers. Mr. Fisk said Mr. Calderón had asked Mr. Bush about the new provisions he put in place to strengthen enforcement against employers of illegal immigrants, but did not elaborate.

Mr. Calderón’s early exit on Tuesday could tighten the focus on Canada. Mr. Fisk said that Mr. Bush and Mr. Harper on Monday had also discussed Canada’s troop commitment in Afghanistan. He said that Mr. Harper affirmed that he would keep Canadian military personnel there through February 2009 but added that Mr. Harper also said he would then have to go back to Parliament to “have a decision on what the mission will be beyond February 2009.”

And Mr. Fisk said Mr. Bush and Mr. Harper discussed the dispute between Russia and Canada over the Northwest Passage that flared this month after Russia staked a claim to the seabed at the North Pole, and Canada reasserted that the passage was its sovereign territory.

“I think it’s fair to say the president came away with a far better understanding of Canada’s position,” Mr. Fisk said. “However, I will note that from the U.S. position, we continue to believe that the Northwest Passage is an international waterway, that there is international navigational rights through the Northwest Passage.”

Outside the meeting site — the Fairmont Le Chateau Montebello — people protesting the Iraq war and the trade goals of the three nations — squared off with the police, who used pepper spray and tear gas to hold them back.