Obama to Meet Leaders of Mexico, Canada

Summit Will Discuss 'Buy American' Trade Provisions

President Barack Obama will travel to Mexico on Sunday to attend his first summit with his Canadian and Mexican counterparts, in a meeting that the latter hope will shed light on how the U.S. plans to address trade disputes involving Mexican trucks and "Buy American" provisions seen as favoring U.S. companies.

Mr. Obama, Mexican President Felipe Calderón and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper are slated to touch on a wide range of topics in the two-day North American Leaders' Summit, including economic, energy, climate and security issues.

Canadian and Mexican officials said their countries will focus on trade, with Messrs. Harper and Calderón closely gauging Mr. Obama's response to disagreements over "Buy America" provisions in the U.S. economic-stimulus plan, and Washington's ban on Mexican trucks operating in the U.S.

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HOFFA HAILS DESIGNATION OF WILMA LIEBMAN AS CHAIRMAN OF THE NLRB

The following is an official statement from Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa.

“Wilma Liebman served the Teamsters with distinction for nine years prior to embarking on her distinguished career in public service. I am so proud that President Obama designated her to take on this vitally important role as chairman of the National Labor Relations Board.

“American workers desperately need the NLRB to restore balance and fairness in the workplace. Wilma is the right person to lead the board on that mission.

“She understands that the NLRB’s role is to protect the rights of employees who want to join a union – a responsibility the Bush-dominated board abandoned during the past eight years. Wilma understands the obstacles that American workers must surmount to join a union. She will bring her sense of fairness and decency to the job.

“President Obama must still nominate three additional members to the board. I am confident that his appointees will restore the board into the honest broker of differences between employees and their employer that it has been for most of the past 75 years.

“The labor movement is looking forward to an NLRB that is no longer stacked against workers.”