Canadian Cabinet ministers meet with Trump's nominee for commerce secretary in bid to avoid tariffs
abcnews.go.comTwo top Canadian Cabinet ministers have met with President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for commerce secretary at Mar-a-Lago as Canada tries to avoid sweeping tariffs when Trump takes office
TORONTO — Two Canadian Cabinet ministers left a meeting at Mar-a-Lago on Friday without assurances President-elect Donald Trump will back away from threatened tariffs on all products from the major American trading partner.
The Canadians called the talks “productive” and said there would be further discussions but one official said the Americans remain fixated on the U.S. trade deficit with Canada.
Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc and Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly met with Howard Lutnick, Trump’s nominee for commerce secretary, as well as North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Trump’s pick to lead the Interior Department.
Trump has threatened to impose 25% tariffs on all Canadian products if Canada does not stem what he calls a flow of migrants and fentanyl into the United States — even though far fewer of each cross into the U.S. from Canada than from Mexico, which Trump has also threatened.
“Minister LeBlanc and Minister Joly had a positive, productive meeting at Mar-a-Lago with Howard Lutnick and Doug Burgum, as a follow-up to the dinner between the Prime Minister and President Trump last month,” said Jean-Sébastien Comeau, a spokesman for LeBlanc.
Comeau said both ministers outlined the measures in Canada's billion-dollar plan to increase security at the border and reiterated “the shared commitment to strengthen border security as well as combat the harm caused by fentanyl to save Canadian and American lives.”
Comeau said Lutnick and Burgum agreed to relay the information to Trump.
A senior Canadian official, however, said the
Read more on abcnews.go.com
