Before heading off to Guadalajara for talks on Monday with his two “amigos” from Canada and Mexico, President Barack Obama blamed the weakened states of their economies as the reason for his promised reworking of the North American Free Trade Agreement being taken off the table.

“In terms of refining some of our agreements, that is not where everyone’s focus is right now because we are in the middle of a very difficult economic situation,” Mr Obama said. Mexico is beset by its deepest recession of modern times.