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.

“From the first time we talked over the phone with the president already in office, he mentioned that we would not be seen as the backyard of the United States, and we are thankful for that” López Obrador said of Biden.

Canada, meanwhile, is concerned about a provision in Biden’s spending plan that would offer American consumers a $7,500 tax credit if they buy electric vehicles through 2026. The following year, only purchases of electric vehicles made in the U.S. would qualify for the credit. The base credit would go up by $4,500 if the vehicle was made at a U.S. plant that operates under a union-negotiated collective bargaining agreement.

The union provision has sparked pushback from some non-union shops and lawmakers. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that Biden “is pretty committed to the bill providing good-paying union jobs.”

Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland on Wednesday called the incentive a clear violation of an updated trade agreement among the three countries that aimed to protect U.S. jobs and products made in North America.

Freeland said that for Canada, “Job one here in the U.S. this week is to really make our American counterparts aware of the extent to which their current approach to this issue is a problem for Canada and to really explain to them that the way they have formulated this incentive really, really has the potential to become the dominant issue in our bilateral relationship.”

As Biden, Trudeau and Lopez Obrador resume the tradition of the North America Leaders’ Summit, the three allies also face deep differences on migration and climate issues.

President Joe Biden shakes hands Thursday with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as they meet in the Oval Office of the White House.

the associated press