(Dow Jones) -- North American leaders are looking to project an image of unity in a summit on Wednesday in the wake of the referendum last week in the U.K. that disrupted markets by shaking the global political order.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will play host to U.S. President Barack Obama and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto in Ottawa for an event sometimes called the Three Amigos summit.
The landmark U.K. vote to leave the European Union sparked concern that other political and trading blocs could fracture.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who has backed the so-called Brexit, said Tuesday that, if elected, he would take steps to withdraw the U.S. from the North American Free Trade Agreement unless it could be renegotiated on more-favorable terms.
The agenda in Ottawa will focus on the fallout of the U.K. decision and ways to coordinate efforts to insulate North America from the sudden uncertainty in global markets.
"There are opportunities to highlight the significance of North America, " said Mark Feierstein, senior director for Western Hemisphere affairs at the White House's National Security Council.
Leaders want to show that the three Nafta countries are unified on the goal of maintaining economic and political ties.
North America is "a compelling example we want to showcase at a time unfortunately people are prone to turning inward -- which will be at the cost of economic growth," Mr. Trudeau said at a presummit press conference with Mr. Peña Nieto on Tuesday.
The three leaders were expected to discuss to discuss such issues as energy, trade, immigration, and regional and global cooperation. The leaders will commit to a goal that clean power should account for 50% of their energy output by 2025, and Mexico will join a U.S.-Canada pact to reduce methane emissions by up to 45% in less than a decade, according to U.S. officials.
The three leaders come into the summit in very different political positions. For Mr. Obama, who has less than a year left in office, the summit is another opportunity to solidify his administration's legacy and relations with two of its most important trading partners.
Mr. Trudeau, on the other hand, is in the first year of his term and has made closer ties with Washington and Mexico City a key plank of his Liberal government's foreign policy.
Mr. Trudeau's predecessor, Stephen Harper, canceled last year's scheduled summit in Canada due in part to White House stalling on the Keystone XL pipeline. Mr. Obama eventually rejected the pipeline after Mr. Trudeau came to power.
"Canada seemed liked the least enthusiastic partner, in some ways," said Christopher Sands, the director of the Center for Canadian Studies at Johns Hopkins University. "Trudeau wanted to make a break with that, and embrace the North American process."
For his part, Mr. Peña Nieto is fighting both political headwinds and economic lethargy at home, and as Mexican officials gear up a publicity campaign meant to blunt the negative image of Mexico and Nafta in the U.S.
A recent online survey of American attitudes toward their southern neighbor by Austin consulting firm Vianovo and ad agency GSD&M showed that only 22% of respondents had a positive image of Mexico, compared with three-quarters who viewed Canada in a good light. Drugs, criminal cartels and corruption were the words most mentioned, according to the survey, which had a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
"U.S. public opinion on whether to remain in or withdraw from Nafta looks very similar to the Brexit vote," said Michael Shannon, a partner at Vianovo, which advises Mexican officials and executives in their dealings with the U.S. "It's not healthy for sustaining a North American partnership, especially in the environment we're in right now."
Mexico recently replaced its ambassador to Washington and the heads of 29 of its 49 consulates across the U.S. with the goal of empowering Mexican immigrants by encouraging both dual citizenship and civic activities, Mexican Foreign Minister Claudia Ruiz Massieu said in a recent interview
Before developments in Europe, Canada, as host country, was looking to focus discussions on climate change and energy, doubting that the summit would produce any grand vision given Mr. Obama's pending departure.
But the Brexit vote has fueled fears in the U.S. that voters in November could opt for candidates who champion protectionism and nationalism. Mr. Trump has said he sees parallels with his campaign, which has focused on border and immigration control.
"The North American leaders realize the whole framework of continental integration and cooperation could be in jeopardy," said Eric Miller, head of Washington-based Rideau Potomac Strategy Group, a consultancy that specializes in trade issues. "Nobody really believed that Britain would leave the EU. But when you start seeing fractures in the major trading blocs in the world, you start to seeing questions raised about blocs" like Nafta.