(COMBO) This combination of pictures created on November 29, 2024 shows
former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (L) looking on during a campaign rally at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on November 4, 2024 and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau looking on during a press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron in Montreal, Canada, on September 26, 2024. – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrived in Palm Beach, Florida, on November 30, 2024 for what Canadian and American media said was a meeting with US President-elect Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago luxury estate. (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU and Ludovic MARIN / AFP)
Palm Beach, United States – Donald Trump said Saturday that a surprise meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Florida was “very productive,” days after the incoming US leader rattled Ottawa with a vow to impose tariffs on Canadian imports.
He said the two men had discussed issues including “the Fentanyl and Drug Crisis that has decimated so many lives as a result of Illegal Immigration.”
He added, “Prime Minister Trudeau has made a commitment to work with us to end this terrible devastation of U.S. Families.”
Trudeau told journalists that he had had an “excellent conversation” with Trump, but did not elaborate.
Trump has blamed Canada and Mexico for not stemming an influx of undocumented migrants and he blames them, and China, for drug problems in the United States.
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Trudeau’s trip came after Trump sent shockwaves through the region Monday when he announced 25 percent import tariffs against Canada and Mexico and 10 percent against China if they failed to address the drug and migration problems.
Such tariffs could have a devastating impact if imposed.
More than three-quarters of Canadian exports, or Can$592.7 billion ($423 billion), went to the United States last year, and nearly two million Canadian jobs are dependent on trade.
A Canadian government source had told AFP that Canada was considering possible retaliatory tariffs against the United States.
Trudeau was the first foreign leader to meet with the US president-elect.
But on Wednesday, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum spoke to Trump by phone and later ruled out a trade war with the United States.
“There will not be a potential tariff war,” she told reporters Thursday.
Trump later said that Sheinbaum had “agreed to stop migration through Mexico… effectively closing our Southern border.”
But she said that there would be no closing of the border, stating: “Of course we do not agree with that.”
Some have suggested Trump’s tariff threat was bluster, or an opening salvo in future trade negotiations. But 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,” Trudeau said. “There’s no question about it.”