Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau flies to Florida to meet with Trump after tariffs threat

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau flew to Florida on Friday to have dinner with President-elect Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club after Trump threatened to impose sweeping tariffs on Canadian products.

Trump threatened to impose tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico if they don’t stop what he called the flow of drugs and migrants across their borders. He said he would impose a 25% responsibility on all products entering the U.S. from Canada and Mexico as one of his first executive orders.

A person familiar with the details called it a “positive wide-ranging dinner that lasted three hours.” The official, who was not authorized to talk publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on state of anonymity, said topics included trade, border safety, fentanyl, defense, Ukraine, NATO, China and pipelines, as well as the the throng of Seven conference in Canada next year.

Although Trump once called Trudeau “frail” and “dishonest” during his first term, ties between the two countries have remained among the closest in the globe. Trudeau is the first chief from the G7 countries to visit Trump since the Nov. 4 election.

Joining Trump and Trudeau at dinner were Howard Lutnick, Trump’s nominee for commerce secretary, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Trump’s pick to navigator the Interior Department, Mike Waltz, Trump’s selection to be his national safety adviser, and the three men’s wives.

Also at the dinner were David McCormick, just elected U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, and his wife, Dina Powell, a former deputy national safety adviser under Trump, as well as Canadian community Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc, whose responsibilities include border safety, and Katie Telford, Trudeau’s chief of staff.

McCormick posted a photo on X of the throng seated at a round table on the patio of Mar-a-Lago. At the table behind the president-elect a boy can be seen mugging for the camera.

Trump’s shift did not respond to questions about what they had discussed or whether the exchange alleviated Trump’s concerns about the border.

A smiling Trudeau declined comment upon returning to his West Palm Beach hotel late Friday.

Trudeau said earlier Friday that he would resolve the tariffs issue by talking to Trump. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Thursday after speaking with Trump that she is confident a tariff war with the United States will be averted.

“We’re going to work together to meet some of the concerns,” Trudeau told reporters in Prince Edward Island in Atlantic Canada. “But ultimately it is through lots of real constructive conversations with President Trump that I am going to have, that will keep us moving forward on the correct track for all Canadians.”

Trudeau said Trump got elected because he promised to bring down the expense of groceries but now he’s talking about adding 25% to the expense of all kinds of products including potatoes from Prince Edward Island.

“It is significant to comprehend that Donald Trump, when he makes statements like that, he plans on carrying them out. There’s no question about it,” Trudeau said.

“Our responsibility is to point out that he would not just be harming Canadians, who work so well with the United States, but he would actually be raising prices for Americans citizens as well and hurting American industry and business,” he added.

Those tariffs could essentially blow up the North American trade pact that Trump’s throng negotiated during his initial term. Trudeau noted they were able to successfully re-discuss the deal, which he calls a “triumph triumph” for both countries.

“We can work together as we did previously,” Trudeau said.

Trump made the tariff threat Monday while railing against an influx of illegal migrants, even though the numbers at the Canadian border pale in comparison to the southern border.

The U.S. Border Patrol made 56,530 arrests at the Mexican border in October alone — and 23,721 arrests at the Canadian one between October 2023 and September 2024.

Trump also railed about fentanyl from Mexico and Canada, even though seizures from the Canadian border are few in comparison to the Mexican border. U.S. customs agents seized 43 pounds of fentanyl at the Canadian border last budgetary year, compared with 21,100 pounds at the Mexican border.

Canadian officials declare lumping Canada in with Mexico is unfair but declare they are ready to make recent investments in border safety.

Trudeau called Trump after he made his social media posts on the border.

When Trump imposed higher tariffs during his first term in office, other countries responded with retaliatory tariffs of their own. Canada, for instance, announced billions of recent duties in 2018 against the U.S. in a tit-for-tat response to recent taxes on Canadian steel and aluminum.

Canada is already examining feasible retaliatory tariffs on sure items from the U.S. should Trump pursue through on his threat to impose sweeping tariffs on Canadian products, a elder official told The Associated Press this week.

A government official said Canada is preparing for every eventuality and has started thinking about what items to target with tariffs in retaliation. The official stressed no selection has been made. The person spoke on state of anonymity as they were not authorized to talk publicly.

Canada is the top export goal for 36 U.S. states. Nearly $3.6 billion Canadian (US$2.7 billion) worth of goods and services cross the border each day.

About 60% of U.S. crude oil imports are from Canada, and 85% of U.S. electricity imports are from Canada.

Canada is also the largest foreign supplier of steel, aluminum and uranium to the U.S. and has 34 critical minerals and metals that the Pentagon is eager for and investing in for national safety.

Canada is one of the most trade-dependent countries in the globe, and 77% of Canada’s exports leave to the U.S.

“Canada has rationale to terror because Trump is impulsive, often influenced by the last thing he sees on Fox information,” said Nelson Wiseman, professor emeritus at the University of Toronto. “He can debt that by catering to what he thinks will sound and look excellent to the community rather than to what happens or will happen.”

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Gillies reported from Toronto.