Trudeau meets with Donald Trump in Florida in wake of tariff threat
U.S. president-elect said earlier this week he would impose hefty tariffs on Canada and Mexico
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau travelled to Palm Beach, Fla., to attend a dinner Friday night with U.S. president-elect Donald Trump. The visit comes amid Trump's threats to impose steep tariffs on Canadian products entering the United States.
Trudeau's plane landed earlier in the evening at Palm Beach International Airport, which is used by Trump when he travels to his Mar-a-Lago estate. Trump has been meeting with his transition team there in recent weeks.
Pennsylvania senator-elect Dave McCormick posted a photo to social media platform X late Friday showing Trudeau sitting beside Trump during dinner at the Florida estate.
Those in the photo included McCormick, Howard Lutnick, Trump's nominee for U.S. commerce secretary; Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota, the pick for interior secretary; and national security adviser nominee Florida Rep. Mike Waltz.
Sources who spoke confidentially because they weren't authorized to speak publicly told CBC/Radio-Canada that members of the Canadian delegation present included Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc and Trudeau adviser Katie Telford.
The sources said Trudeau planned to spend the night in West Palm Beach and leave first thing in the morning.
https://x.com/DaveMcCormickPA/status/1862716986629005758
PM says tariffs would hurt both countries
Trump said Monday night on a Truth Social post he would impose a 25 per cent tax on all goods imported from Canada and Mexico unless both countries stop what he called an "invasion" of drugs, "in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens" into the U.S.
Trudeau told a news conference earlier on Friday that Trump's tariff threats should be taken seriously.
"Donald Trump, when he makes statements like that, he plans on carrying them out. There's no question about that," he told reporters.
"Our responsibility is to point out that in this way he would be actually not just harming Canadians who work so well with the United States. He'd actually be raising prices for American citizens as well, and hurting American industry and businesses."
Trudeau spoke with Trump by phone on Monday evening after the president-elect made his tariff threat. The prime minister said Tuesday morning that the two had a "good call."
"We obviously talked about… how the intense and effective connections between our two countries flow back and forth. We talked about some of the challenges we can work on together," Trudeau told reporters.
The two leaders talked for about 10 minutes and primarily discussed trade and border security, according to a government source with knowledge of the phone call. Trudeau pointed out that the number of migrants who cross from Canada to the U.S. is a tiny fraction of those who cross from Mexico, the source said.
Trudeau held a virtual meeting with Canada's premiers on Wednesday evening to discuss strategy in wake of Trump's threat.
If Trump follows through, it could have a massive impact on the Canadian economy.
The U.S. imported $614.3 billion worth of goods from Canada in 2022, according to the Office of the United States Trade Representative. More recent figures from the U.S. Census Bureau show that the U.S. imported about $435 billion of Canadian goods between January and September of this year.
In his online post, Trump said Mexico and Canada "have the absolute right and power to easily solve this long simmering problem. We hereby demand that they use this power, and until such time that they do, it is time for them to pay a very big price!"
Trudeau's plane is parked at the Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach. (Josh Ritchie/CBC)
LeBlanc said earlier this week that Canadians can expect to see the government and law enforcement agencies reassuring Canadians that the border is safe and "showing Americans the history and daily partnership that exists between the RCMP and American agencies."
Flavio Volpe, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association, said in a statement on Friday evening that the face-to-face meeting is a "show of good faith" and proves that Trudeau is listening to opposition critics and premiers that say he "needs to do better."
"The prime minister is demonstrating that he understands there are unconventional methods to Trump's way of operating and showing the humility that his detractors accuse him of lacking."
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With files from CBC's David Cochrane, Katie Simpson, Louis Blouin and Rosemary Barton
Trump's tariffs would 'screw up' key relationships with Canada, Mexico: Biden
President says incoming successor needs to rethink 'counterproductive' strategy
U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday said he hoped president-elect Donald Trump would rethink his plan to impose tariffs on Mexico and Canada, saying it could "screw up" relationships with close allies.
"I hope he rethinks it. I think it's a counterproductive thing to do," Biden told reporters in Nantucket, Mass., where he is spending the Thanksgiving Day holiday with his family.
"We have a unusual situation in America — we're surrounded by the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, and two allies: Mexico and Canada. And the last thing we need to do is begin to screw up those relationships."
Such tariffs would throttle the Canadian economy.
Trudeau, Sheinbaum speak to Trump
In a phone call after Trump's post, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau listed things Canada has already done to improve the situation at the border and suggested Canada's situation wasn't as dire as Mexico's.
Trudeau said his conversation with the president-elect was a "good call" during which he laid out the "facts."
Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Thursday she did not specifically discuss tariffs in a call she held with Trump on Wednesday, adding the two had agreed there would be good relations between the two nations.
Following the call, Trump said Sheinbaum had "agreed to stop migration through Mexico, and into the United States, effectively closing our Southern Border."
Sheinbaum, however, said she had laid out a strategy that "attended to" migrants before they reached the U.S. border.
Biden, who met with Trump at the White House earlier this month, reiterated that he wanted the transition between his outgoing administration and the president-elect's incoming one to go smoothly.
"And all the talk about what he's going to do or not do, I think there may be a little bit of internal reckoning on his …part," Biden said.
Trump has threatened new tariffs on China as well.
Biden noted that he and Chinese President Xi Jinping had established a hotline between the two leaders and a direct line of communication between their two militaries.
"One thing I'm confident about Xi is he doesn't want to make a mistake," Biden said. "He understands what's at stake."