Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada is the first foreign G7 leader to visit President-elect Donald J. Trump since the election. He is under pressure to persuade Mr. Trump to back down from his tariff threat.
By Sara William | Nov. 30, 2024 Updated 03:09 a.m. ET
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada went to Florida on Friday night to see President-elect Donald J. Trump at Mar-a-Lago, two officials with direct knowledge of the visit said, after a threat by Mr. Trump to impose across-the-board tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico on Day 1.
The visit makes Mr. Trudeau the first head of government from the Group of 7, a key forum of global coordination consisting of the world’s wealthiest democracies, to visit the president-elect.
Mr. Trudeau and Mr. Trump dined together on Friday evening, one official said, along with a delegation of senior Trump allies poised for top trade and security positions in his new administration.
Mr. Trudeau was accompanied on his visit by Dominic LeBlanc, Canada’s minister of public safety. The Canadian prime minister was staying in the area overnight, but not at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s private club and home in Palm Beach, Fla.
The Trump transition team did not respond to requests for comment, and there was no information released about Mr. Trump’s schedule on Friday. Mr. Trudeau, on returning to his hotel after spending about three hours at Mar-a-Lago, did not respond to questions about what was discussed over dinner.
Mr. Trudeau has been scrambling to formulate a plan to respond to the threat made this week by Mr. Trump to impose a 25 percent tariff unless Mexico and Canada take action to curb the arrival of undocumented migrants and drugs across their borders into the United States.
Mr. Trump said he would sign such a measure on his first day in office, a move that could potentially cripple trade across the continent.
The threat was also seen as an opening salvo in what would most likely be a long renegotiation of the trade agreement among the three North American nations known as the USMCA —United States, Mexico, Canada trade agreement, the successor to the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Mr. Trudeau has tried to project calm and confidence, saying that he believed that Mr. Trump would see that tariffs would harm both countries, which are each other’s biggest trading partners. About 80 percent of Canada’s oil and 40 percent of its gas are exported to the United States, and the two countries are deeply intertwined through the joint manufacturing of cars, as well as in multiple other industries.
The Mar-a-Lago visit on Friday, which was initially reported by The Globe and Mail newspaper on the basis of tracking Mr. Trudeau’s plane, is intended as a direct effort by Mr. Trudeau to show that he has a plan to address Mr. Trump’s border concerns, and that tariffs should be avoided for the sake of both nations’ economies.
Mr. LeBlanc, the Canadian public safety minister, was given the task of drafting tougher border measures. He said this week that he was preparing to deploy additional staff, as well as drones and helicopters if needed, to better manage the border between the two countries.
The security and trade issues at the heart of the Friday meeting were also reflected on the Trump side of the table: The dinner, an official said, was attended by Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota, whom Mr. Trump picked to be interior secretary; Howard Lutnick, who is Mr. Trump’s selection for commerce secretary; and Mike Waltz, Mr. Trump’s choice for national security adviser.
Mr. Trudeau’s response to Mr. Trump’s tariff threats contrasts sharply with that of Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum. Mr. Trudeau and other senior Canadian officials have sought to distinguish Canada’s position from Mexico’s, highlighting that Canada is better aligned with the United States and Mr. Trump’s agenda on three key issues: the borders, restrictions on China and bringing well-paying jobs back home.
Ms. Sheinbaum has been firmer, threatening retaliatory tariffs if Mr. Trump made good on his threat.
The split has driven a wedge between two allies, Canada and Mexico, who were able to leverage their relationship to negotiate a favorable agreement during Mr. Trump’s first presidency. The trade pact is officially up for renegotiation in 2026, but analysts say they believe that Mr. Trump’s decision to put tariffs against the two U.S. neighbors on the table even before he takes office indicates that a renegotiation of that agreement could come sooner than planned.
Mr. Trudeau is facing considerable pressure over how to handle this difficult moment. The imposition of tariffs on Canada would throw the country into recession, economists believe, as doing business with the United States is the lifeblood of the economies of several Canadian provinces.
But Mr. Trudeau is in a precarious political moment, too, after nine years in power. He faces elections in the coming months, and polls show his party, the Liberal Party, is set to lose badly to the Conservatives led by Pierre Poilievre.
And as Mr. Trudeau has been trying to define a negotiating position to counter Mr. Trump’s unilateral tariff threat, the leaders of some provinces have charged ahead with their own proposals. Most prominently, Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, has said that Canada should ditch Mexico and directly negotiate a new deal with Mr. Trump.
“To compare us to Mexico is the most insulting thing I’ve ever heard from our friends and closest allies, the United States of America,” Mr. Ford said earlier this week, adding that Mr. Trump’s descriptions of Canada were “like a family member stabbing you right in the heart.”
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