Trudeau flies to Florida to meet Trump after Canada tariffs threat

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau flew to Florida on Friday to have dinner with US President-elect Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club after Mr Trump threatened to impose sweeping tariffs on Canadian products.

Mr Trump threatened to impose tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico if they do not stop what he called the flow of drugs and migrants across their borders.

He said he would impose a 25% tax on all products entering the US 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 said topics included trade, border security, fentanyl, defence, Ukraine, Natro, China and pipelines, as well as the the Group of Seven meeting in Canada next year.

Although Mr Trump once called Trudeau “weak” and “dishonest” during his first term, ties between the two countries have remained among the closest in the world.

Mr Trudeau is the first leader from the G7 countries to visit Mr Trump since the November 5 election.

A smiling Mr Trudeau declined to comment as he returned to his West Palm Beach hotel late on Friday.

“We’re going to work together to meet some of the concerns,” Mr Trudeau told reporters in Prince Edward Island in Atlantic Canada.

He said Mr Trump was elected because he promised to bring down the cost of groceries but now he is talking about adding 25% to the cost of all kinds of products, including potatoes from Prince Edward Island.

“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,” Mr 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 Mr Trump’s team negotiated during his initial term.

Mr Trudeau said they were able to successfully re-negotiate the deal, which he calls a “win win” for both countries.

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

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

Mr Trump also railed about fentanyl from Mexico and Canada, even though seizures from the Canadian border are few in comparison to the Mexican border.