President Donald Trump and his administration will discuss trade during a dinner with numerous executives from the U.S. and Mexico in conjunction with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's visit to Washington on Wednesday, CNBC has learned.
The attendees will include FedEx Chairman and CEO Fred Smith, UPS Executive Chairman David Abney, Intel CEO Bob Swan and Lockheed Martin CEO James Taiclet, according to a partial list obtained by CNBC. Executives from Sempra, Shell, Ford, Nucor and others are also slated to attend, according to the list.Â
A total of around 20 business leaders from Mexico and the U.S. will participate in the dinner, a White House pool reporter said later Wednesday, citing the Mexican Foreign Ministry. The list of Mexican executives includes multibillionaire Carlos Slim, along with 10 others, according to the pool reporter.
The working dinner with business and political leaders — a rarity during the coronavirus pandemic — will focus on cross-border trade and the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the revamped trade deal that Trump signed into law in January. The accord replaces the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, which had been in place since the mid-1990s and was heavily criticized by Trump.
Lopez Obrador is set to arrive at the White House at 2 p.m. ET and participate in a bilateral meeting with Trump shortly afterward, according to a scheduling email from the White House. Trump will host the working dinner with Lopez Obrador at 6:45 p.m., the schedule says.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was reportedly also invited to Washington to celebrate the trade agreement between the three nations, but he declined to attend.