Two of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s prime cupboard ministers met Friday with two of U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s cupboard picks in an try to stave off the looming prospect of tariffs on Canadian exports.
International Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly and Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc flew to Florida to transient the presidential transition crew on the federal government’s plan for bettering border safety and to make the case that Trump’s menace of steep tariffs on all Canadian exports to the U.S. would injury each international locations’ economies.
Trump threatened final month to slap a 25 per cent tariff on all items coming into the U.S. from Canada and Mexico beginning on Jan. 20, his inauguration day, except the international locations curb the move of medicine and migrants throughout their borders.
Joly and LeBlanc met Friday morning with Trump’s nominee for secretary of commerce, Howard Lutnick, and his choose for secretary of the inside, Doug Burgum, on the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago resort, the place his transition crew is headquartered.
“Each ministers outlined the measures in Canada’s border plan and reiterated the shared dedication to strengthen border safety in addition to fight the hurt attributable to fentanyl to avoid wasting Canadian and American lives,” LeBlanc’s spokesperson Jean-Sébastien Comeau mentioned in an electronic mail to Ontario Chronicle.
Whereas the ministers didn’t acquire a dedication to carry off on the tariffs, Comeau mentioned the assembly was “productive” and optimistic, and that discussions would proceed within the coming weeks.
Trump departs a information convention at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Seashore, Fla., adopted by his nominee for secretary of commerce, Howard Lutnick, on Dec. 16. (Evan Vucci/The Related Press)
Ontario Chronicle requested interviews Friday with Joly and LeBlanc, however they weren’t obtainable.
The Trudeau authorities has been scrambling for the previous month to mount a response to the tariff menace, which has till now included the prime minister and Leblanc, then-minister of public security, flying to Mar-a-Lago for a dinner assembly with Trump and unveiling a $1.3-billion suite of measures meant to disrupt the move of fentanyl and strengthen 24/7 surveillance of the border.
In the meantime, Trump has adopted up with a succession of Canada-focused social media posts, together with taunting Trudeau as “governor,” suggesting Canadians could be higher off dwelling within the 51st state, and claiming he’d urged former hockey star Wayne Gretzky to “run for prime minister.”
Trudeau is at present in British Columbia on Christmas trip, amid mounting questions on his management and an imminent menace that his authorities might fall subsequent month in a non-confidence vote.
Ontario Chronicle requested Trump’s transition crew for touch upon Friday’s conferences however didn’t obtain a response.
Donald Trump urges Wayne Gretzky to run for prime minister
U.S. president-elect Donald Trump claimed on social media that he urged hockey icon Wayne Gretzky to run for prime minister throughout a Christmas go to. It’s Trump’s newest touch upon Canadian politics, following quips about Canada changing into the U.S.’s 51st state and assembly ‘Governor’ Justin Trudeau.
Lutnick, CEO of Wall Road monetary providers big Cantor Fitzgerald, was a significant donor to Trump’s marketing campaign. The president-elect mentioned Lutnick “will lead our tariff and commerce agenda” when saying his nomination as secretary of commerce.
Trump’s commerce deficit considerations raised in assembly: supply
Trump’s frustrations about the U.S. commerce deficit with Canada got here up on the assembly, a senior Canadian authorities supply advised Ontario Chronicle.
Trump has repeatedly inaccurately characterised the commerce deficit — about $75 billion US in 2023 — because the U.S. subsidizing the Canadian financial system.
Economists say the commerce deficit is nearly totally due to Canada’s massive petroleum exports. The U.S. imported extra crude oil from Canada in 2023 than from all different international locations mixed, in line with knowledge posted by the U.S. Power Data Administration.
The supply mentioned will probably be tough for Canada to take care of Trump’s commerce deficit considerations.
The president-elect has signalled he desires to renegotiate the phrases of the tripartite commerce settlement between the U.S., Canada and Mexico, a deal struck throughout Trump’s first time period in workplace.
Canadian and American flags fly close to the Windsor-Detroit Ambassador Bridge, a significant commerce hyperlink. (Rob Gurdebeke/The Canadian Press)
The doubtless key goal for LeBlanc and Joly on the Mar-a-Lago assembly was to determine if Canada’s deliberate border measures will probably be sufficient to dissuade Trump from undergo together with his tariff menace, mentioned Lori Turnbull, a political science professor at Dalhousie College.
“I am unsure if it is real looking that they will get a solution like that right this moment,” Turnbull advised Ontario Chronicle Community’s Natasha Fatah in an interview Friday.
“However I feel the purpose is to attempt to transfer towards that aim and to see what else would possibly should be carried out,” Turnbull mentioned.
“I feel extra broadly, it is about relationship-building. It is about being there, establishing a dialog, retaining that line of communication open and having the dialog with people who find themselves not Trump.”
Forward of the assembly, LeBlanc’s spokesperson had mentioned that the ministers supposed “to concentrate on Canada’s efforts to fight fentanyl trafficking and unlawful migration and the measures outlined in Canada’s border plan, in addition to the unfavorable impacts that the imposition of 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian items would have on each Canada and america.”
LeBlanc had beforehand mentioned he would meet Trump’s border czar Tom Homan “after Christmas” to current Canada’s proposed plan to safe the shared border. Nonetheless, LeBlanc didn’t meet Homan on Friday.
