The meeting took place after Trump announced that he plans on slapping a 25 percent tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc met U.S. President-elect Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Nov. 29.
While no official statements about the meeting were issued on Nov. 29, Liberal MP Anthony Housefather commented on the meeting.
The meeting took place after Trump recently announced that he plans on slapping a 25 percent tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico unless the two countries stop illegal border crossings and the flow of illicit drugs like fentanyl into the United States.
Trudeau said earlier on Nov. 29 that he is going to resolve the tariff issue by talking with Trump.
“We’re going to work together to meet some of the concerns,” Trudeau said in a press conference in Prince Edward Island.
Concern in Canada
A day after Trump announced the new tariffs on Nov. 25, Trudeau said he had a “good call” with the president-elect, and that the two talked about “how the intense and effective connections between our two countries flow back and forth.”
Trudeau met with Canadian premiers on the issue on Nov. 27.
“We agreed that illegal drugs, especially opioids, are a scourge for both of our countries, and that we need to continue to work hard to ensure our border is safe and secure, and to really crack down on illegal drugs,” she said.
Tariff Wars
In 2018 during Trump’s first presidency, the United States imposed tariffs of 25 percent on Canadian steel products, and 10 percent on Canadian aluminum imports. Canada retaliated in a similar manner, and the two sides eventually lifted the tariffs in 2019.
Trump’s first tenure also saw the renegotiation of the North American free trade deal with Canada and Mexico. To ensure agreement on the deal, Canada had to make concessions to its dairy supply management system in favor of the United States.
The agreement is up for review again in 2026, and Trump has said he plans on renegotiating it.
Trump’s Call With Mexican President
Trump said on Nov. 27 that in a phone call he had with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, she agreed to prevent illegal immigrants from going to the U.S. southern border.
“It has never been our approach, and of course, we don’t agree with that,” Sheinbaum said during a regular morning news conference on Nov. 28.
Before the recent phone conversation with Trump, Sheinbaum had said in response to the president-elect’s tariff threats, that she would work with him, but that Mexico would impose retaliatory tariffs if his plans materialize.
“One tariff will follow another and so on, until we put our common businesses at risk,” she said.
Trump had said in his Nov. 25 announcement of the tariffs that they will “remain in effect until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country!”
Jacob Burg, Noé Chartier, Matthew Horwood, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Original News Source Link – Epoch Times
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