Trudeau leaves Trump meeting at Mar-a-Lago without assurances on tariffs

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau returned home Saturday after his meeting with Donald Trump without assurances the president-elect will back away from threatened tariffs on all products from the major American trading partner.
Trump called the talks “productive” but signaled no retreat from a pledge that Canada says unfairly lumps it in with Mexico over the flow of drugs and migrants into the United States.
After the leaders’ hastily arranged dinner Friday night at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida, Trudeau spoke of “an excellent conversation.” Trump said in a Truth Social post later Saturday that they’d discussed “many important topics that will require both countries to work together to address.”
For issues in need of such cooperation, Trump cited fentanyl and the “drug crisis that has decimated so many lives as a result of illegal immigration,” fair trade deals “that do not jeopardize American workers” and the U.S. trade deficit with its ally to the north.
Trump asserted that the prime minister had made “a commitment to work with us to end this terrible devastation” caused by fentanyl from China reaching the United States through its neighbors. The U.S., he said, “will no longer sit idly by as our citizens become victims to the scourge of this drug epidemic.”
The Republican president-elect has threatened to impose a 25% tax on all products entering the U.S. from Canada and Mexico as one of his first executive orders when he takes office in January.
He made the tariff threat Monday on social media while citing fentanyl seizures at both borders and an influx of migrants entering the country illegally, even though numbers at the Canadian border pale in comparison to those at the U.S.-Mexico border.
U.S. customs agents seized 43 pounds of fentanyl at the Canadian border last fiscal year, compared to over 21,000 pounds at the Mexican border. On immigration, the U.S. Border Patrol made 56,530 arrests at the Mexican border in October alone, while making 23,721 arrests at the Canadian border between October 2023 and September 2024.
Trudeau called Trump after the Republican’s posts about tariffs and they agreed to meet, according to a official familiar with the matter who was not authorized to publicly discuss details of the private talks.
Trudeau’s office said in a statement that the leaders “shared a productive wide-ranging discussion” centering on “collaboration and strengthening our relationship,” adding, “As Canada’s closest friend and ally, the United States is our key partner, and we are committed to working together in the interests of Canadians and Americans.”
Trump, during his first term as president, once called Trudeau “weak” and “dishonest,” but it was the prime minister who was the first G7 leader to visit Trump since the Nov. 5 election.
“Tariffs are a crucial issue for Canada and a bold move was in order. Perhaps it was a risk, but a risk worth taking,” said Daniel Béland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal.
Before leaving for the meeting on Friday, Trudeau said Trump got elected because he promised to bring down the cost of groceries but was now talking about adding 25% to the cost of all kinds of products, including potatoes from Prince Edward Island in Atlantic Canada.
“It is important to understand 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.
When Trump imposed higher tariffs during his first term, other countries responded with retaliatory tariffs of their own. Canada, for instance, announced billions of new duties in 2018 against the U.S. in a response to new taxes on Canadian steel and aluminum.
Canada is the top export destination 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, as are 85% of U.S. electricity imports.
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 security.