Trump “claimed” he rejected one-on-one meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on trade. Additionally, Trump launched fresh personal attacks on both Trudeau and the Canadian team. In response, Trudeau shouldered it and pledged to continue work for a good deal for Canada, but be prepared to walk away.
Trump said he turned out the meeting request because “his tariffs are too high, and he doesn’t seem to want to move”, referring to Trudeau apparently. Trump repeated his threat and said “forget about it and frankly we’re just thinking about just taxing cars coming in from Canada”. He stepped up further and said “that’s the motherlode, that’s the big one.”
Additionally, Trump added that “We’re very unhappy with the negotiations and the negotiating style of Canada. We don’t like their representative very much. That’s another personal attack on apparently on Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland.
Trudeau spokeswoman Chantal Gagnon said: “No meeting was requested. We don’t have any comment beyond that.” Trudeau himself reiterated “we will keep working as long as it takes to get to the right deal for Canada.” He also emphasized Canada would need to feel confident “about the path forward as we move forward – if we do – on a NAFTA 2.0.”
It’s now clearly more likely then not the Canada-US NAFTA negotiation will slip the US imposed deadline of October 1. It’s reported that the US could publish the text of the agreement with Mexico on Thursday or Friday and move on with the process, without Canada.
