Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Saturday he had an “excellent conversation” with Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club after the president-elect’s threat to impose major tariffs on two of America’s major trading partners raised concerns in Ottawa and Mexico City.
It was not clear, as Trudeau returned to Canada from Florida, whether the conversation eased Trump’s concerns.
A person familiar with the details of the hastily arranged meeting on Friday night said it was a “positive, broad-based dinner that lasted three hours.”
Topics include trade, border security, fentanyl, defense, Ukraine, NATO, China, the Middle East and pipelines, as well as nuclear weapons, said the official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. G7 meeting in Canada next year
The Republican president-elect threatened to impose customs duties on products coming from Canada and Mexico if the two countries did not stop what he called the flow of drugs and migrants across their borders. He said he would impose a 25 percent tax on all products entering the United States from Canada and Mexico as one of his first executive orders when he takes office in January.
As he left his hotel in West Palm Beach, Trudeau paused briefly to answer a reporter’s question about the dinner meeting, saying it was an “excellent conversation.” Trump’s transition team did not respond to questions about what the leaders discussed.
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During his first term as president, Trump once called Trudeau “weak” and “dishonest,” but the prime minister is the first G7 leader to visit with Trump since the Nov. 5 election.
Tariffs are a critical issue for Canada and a bold move was necessary. “It may be a risk, but it’s a risk worth taking,” said Daniel Belland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal.
Among those attending the dinner were Howard Lutnick, Trump’s pick for Commerce Secretary; North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, at the helm of the Department of the Interior; and Mike Waltz, Trump’s pick to be national security adviser. Trudeau was accompanied by Canadian Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc, whose responsibilities include border security, and Katie Telford, Trudeau’s chief of staff.
Trudeau had said earlier Friday that he would resolve the tariff issue by talking with Trump. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said the day before after speaking with Trump that she was confident a tariff war with the United States could be avoided.
Trudeau said Trump was elected because he promised to reduce the cost of groceries, but now he is talking about adding 25% to the cost of all kinds of produce, including potatoes from Prince Edward Island in Atlantic Canada.
“It is important to understand that when Donald Trump makes statements like this, he plans to carry them out. “There’s no doubt about that,” Trudeau said before leaving for Florida.
“Our responsibility is to point out that it will not only hurt Canadians who do well with the United States, but it will also raise prices for American citizens and hurt American industry and business,” he added.
For Nelson Weissman, professor emeritus at the University of Toronto, Trump “does not need convincing that new tariffs on Canadian products would not be in the best interest of the United States. He knows that, but he can’t say it because it would detract from what he has said publicly.” His goal is to project the way he acts when he speaks.
These tariffs could torpedo the North American trade agreement that Trump’s team negotiated during his first term. Trudeau noted that they were able to successfully renegotiate the deal, which he described as a “win-win” for both countries.
Trump threatened tariffs on Monday while pointing to the influx of migrants entering the country illegally, though the numbers at the Canadian border pale in comparison to those at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Trump also talked about fentanyl coming from Mexico and Canada, although seizures from the Canadian border are few compared to the Mexican border.
Canadian officials say Canada’s status with Mexico is unfair, but they say they are ready to make new investments in border security.
When Trump imposed higher tariffs during his first term in office, other countries responded with retaliatory tariffs of their own. For example, Canada announced new multi-billion-dollar tariffs in 2018 against the United States in response to new taxes on Canadian steel and aluminum.
Canada is the top export destination for 36 US states. Approximately 3.6 billion Canadian dollars (2.7 billion US dollars) of goods and services cross the border daily.
& Edition 2024 The Canadian Press
