Canada’s Trudeau meets Trump in Florida as tariff threats loom

PALM BEACH, United States - Justin Trudeau had an “excellent conversation” with Donald Trump at the president-elect’s Florida estate, Canada’s prime minister said on Nov 30, as the United States’ neighbours scramble to blunt the impact of Trump’s trade threats.

Mr Trudeau flew for a dinner at Mar-a-Lago on Nov 29, after

Trump earlier this week announced plans for import tariffs

against Canada and Mexico and rival China.

“It was an excellent conversation,” Mr Trudeau told reporters on the morning of Nov 30, as he was leaving a hotel in West Palm Beach to catch a flight back to Canada.

Mr Trudeau was the latest high-profile guest of Trump, whose impending second term - which starts in January - is already overshadowing the last few months of President Joe Biden’s administration.

A photograph released by Pennsylvania Senator-elect David McCormick showed Trump and Mr Trudeau side-by-side at table, surrounded by a dozen guests including Mr Howard Lutnick, Donald Trump’s pick for commerce secretary, and Mr Mike Waltz, his choice for national security adviser.

In a social media post on Nov 25, Trump said he would slap a 25 per cent tariff on Mexico and Canada, accusing the two US neighbours of allowing an “invasion” of the US by illicit drugs, namely fentanyl, and undocumented migrants.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum spoke with Trump by phone on Nov 27, though the two leaders’ accounts of the conversation differed drastically.

Trump claimed that Mexico’s left-wing president had “agreed to stop migration through Mexico, and into the United States, effectively closing our Southern Border.”

Ms Sheinbaum later said she had discussed US-supported anti-migration policies that have long been in place in Mexico.

She said that after that, the talks had no longer revolved around the threat of tariff hikes, downplaying the risk of a trade war.

Billions in trade

Mr Biden warned that same day that Trump’s tariff threats could “screw up” Washington’s relationships with Ottawa and Mexico City.

“I think it’s a counterproductive thing to do,” Mr Biden told reporters.

For Canada, the stakes of any new tariffs are high. More than three-quarters of Canadian exports, or Can$592.7 billion (S$566.7 billion), went to the US in 2023, and nearly two million Canadian jobs are dependent on trade.

A Canadian government source told AFP that Canada is considering possible retaliatory tariffs against the United States.

Some analysts have suggested Trump’s tariff threat may be bluster, or an opening salvo in future trade negotiations. But Mr Trudeau rejected those views when he spoke with reporters earlier in Prince Edward Island province.

“Donald Trump, when he makes statements like that, he plans on carrying them out,” Mr Trudeau said. “There’s no question about it.” AFP