Trudeau in Florida to meet Trump as tariff threats loom: media
By AFP
November 30, 2024
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau previously visited Donald Trump in the White House during the president-elect's first term in office - Copyright AFP/File JIM WATSON
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrived in Palm Beach, Florida, on Friday for what Canadian and American media said was a meeting with US President-elect Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago luxury estate.
Flight trackers first spotted a jet broadcasting the prime minister’s callsign en route to the southern US state, in a visit that comes days after Trump threatened the United States’ northern neighbor with import tariffs once he takes office.
According to the website Flightradar, the Canadian leader’s plane landed at Palm Beach International Airport late in the afternoon.
Canadian public broadcaster CBC said Trudeau would be dining with Trump, and that his public safety minister, Dominic LeBlanc was accompanying him on the trip.
The prime minister’s office did not immediately confirm the unannounced trip.
Trump sent shockwaves across Canada when he announced pending import tariffs against neighbors Canada and Mexico and also rival China in social media posts on Monday.
More than three-quarters of Canadian exports, or Can$592.7 billion ($423 billion), went to the United States last year, and nearly two million Canadian jobs are dependent on trade.
A government source told AFP that Canada is considering possible retaliatory tariffs against the United States.
Some have suggested Trump’s tariff threat may be bluster, or an opening salvo in future trade negotiations. But Trudeau rejected those views when he spoke with reporters earlier in Prince Edward Island province.
“Donald Trump, when he makes statements like that, he plans on carrying them out,” Trudeau said. “There’s no question about it.”
'Too much death and hardship!' Trump provides new details about Trudeau meeting
Travis Gettys
November 30, 2024
By AFP
November 30, 2024
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau previously visited Donald Trump in the White House during the president-elect's first term in office - Copyright AFP/File JIM WATSON
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrived in Palm Beach, Florida, on Friday for what Canadian and American media said was a meeting with US President-elect Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago luxury estate.
Flight trackers first spotted a jet broadcasting the prime minister’s callsign en route to the southern US state, in a visit that comes days after Trump threatened the United States’ northern neighbor with import tariffs once he takes office.
According to the website Flightradar, the Canadian leader’s plane landed at Palm Beach International Airport late in the afternoon.
Canadian public broadcaster CBC said Trudeau would be dining with Trump, and that his public safety minister, Dominic LeBlanc was accompanying him on the trip.
The prime minister’s office did not immediately confirm the unannounced trip.
Trump sent shockwaves across Canada when he announced pending import tariffs against neighbors Canada and Mexico and also rival China in social media posts on Monday.
More than three-quarters of Canadian exports, or Can$592.7 billion ($423 billion), went to the United States last year, and nearly two million Canadian jobs are dependent on trade.
A government source told AFP that Canada is considering possible retaliatory tariffs against the United States.
Some have suggested Trump’s tariff threat may be bluster, or an opening salvo in future trade negotiations. But Trudeau rejected those views when he spoke with reporters earlier in Prince Edward Island province.
“Donald Trump, when he makes statements like that, he plans on carrying them out,” Trudeau said. “There’s no question about it.”
'Too much death and hardship!' Trump provides new details about Trudeau meeting
Travis Gettys
November 30, 2024
RAW STORY
Donald Trump posted a statement on his meeting with Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau ahead of a possible trade war.
The prime minister flew Friday to Mar-a-Lago to discuss sweeping tariffs threatened by the former president against Canada, Mexico and China, and Trump provided additional details the following day on his Truth Social account on their three-hour meeting over dinner at his private resort.
"I just had a very productive meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, where we discussed many important topics that will require both Countries to work together to address, like the Fentanyl and 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 massive Trade Deficit the U.S. has with Canada," Trump posted.
The president-elect has threatened to impose 25 percent tariffs on products coming from Canada and Mexico if the North American neighbors don't stop what he calls the flow of drugs and migrants into the U.S.
"I made it very clear that the United States will no longer sit idly by as our Citizens become victims to the scourge of this Drug Epidemic, caused mainly by the Drug Cartels, and Fentanyl pouring in from China," Trump posted. "Too much death and hardship! Prime Minister Trudeau has made a commitment to work with us to end this terrible devastation of U.S. Families. We also spoke about many other important topics like Energy, Trade, and the Arctic. All are vital issues that I will be addressing on my first days back in Office, and before."
Trump and Trudeau were joined at the dinner by commerce nominee Howard Lutnick, interior nominee Doug Burgum and national security adviser nominee Mike Waltz, along with Canada’s public safety minister Dominic LeBlanc and Trudeau chief of staff Katie Telford.
“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 before his visit to Florida. “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."
Donald Trump posted a statement on his meeting with Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau ahead of a possible trade war.
The prime minister flew Friday to Mar-a-Lago to discuss sweeping tariffs threatened by the former president against Canada, Mexico and China, and Trump provided additional details the following day on his Truth Social account on their three-hour meeting over dinner at his private resort.
"I just had a very productive meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, where we discussed many important topics that will require both Countries to work together to address, like the Fentanyl and 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 massive Trade Deficit the U.S. has with Canada," Trump posted.
The president-elect has threatened to impose 25 percent tariffs on products coming from Canada and Mexico if the North American neighbors don't stop what he calls the flow of drugs and migrants into the U.S.
"I made it very clear that the United States will no longer sit idly by as our Citizens become victims to the scourge of this Drug Epidemic, caused mainly by the Drug Cartels, and Fentanyl pouring in from China," Trump posted. "Too much death and hardship! Prime Minister Trudeau has made a commitment to work with us to end this terrible devastation of U.S. Families. We also spoke about many other important topics like Energy, Trade, and the Arctic. All are vital issues that I will be addressing on my first days back in Office, and before."
Trump and Trudeau were joined at the dinner by commerce nominee Howard Lutnick, interior nominee Doug Burgum and national security adviser nominee Mike Waltz, along with Canada’s public safety minister Dominic LeBlanc and Trudeau chief of staff Katie Telford.
“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 before his visit to Florida. “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."
Trudeau, Trump Discuss Trade, Border at Crucial Mar-a-Lago Meeting
(Bloomberg) -- Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with President-elect Donald Trump on Friday as the two leaders discussed trade, the border and fentanyl, subjects of the incoming US leader’s tariff threat on its neighbor.
Trudeau and Trump spoke on a wide range of issues over dinner at Mar-a-Lago that lasted roughly three hours, two officials familiar with the meeting said. They included defense, NATO, Ukraine and China, the people said, declining to be identified as the information isn’t public.
The two leaders also discussed several pipeline projects, including the Keystone XL line the Biden administration killed, and icebreakers, the people said. Trudeau landed in West Palm Beach, Florida, earlier Friday evening.
The meeting was attended by top Trump officials, including his incoming National Security Adviser Mike Waltz; Howard Lutnick, his pick for commerce secretary; Doug Burgum, his pick for interior secretary; and David McCormick and Dina Powell, respectively the newly elected senator for Pennsylvania and a senior Trump aide from his first term, the people said.
Trump earlier this week vowed to hit Canada and Mexico as well as China with additional tariffs, casting the levies as necessary to secure US borders, a top concern of voters in November’s presidential election. The president-elect said he would impose additional 10% tariffs on goods from China and 25% tariffs on all products from Mexico and Canada if they failed to act.
The two leaders were also joined at dinner by Canadian Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc — whose portfolio includes border security — as well as Trudeau’s chief of staff, Katie Telford, a person familiar with the matter said earlier.
Representatives for both sides did not immediately respond to a request for a public comment outside of regular business hours.
Trump’s first specific vow to curb global trade flows since his election has roiled markets. His threats, which he made on his Truth Social network, sent the Canadian dollar falling. That evening, Trudeau contacted the president-elect in a phone call to discuss border security and trade, according to a government official with knowledge of the matter.
The prime minister pointed out that the number of migrants who cross the country’s border into the US is minuscule compared to those who make their way from Mexico, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Canadian officials in recent days have also been quick to insist that they are working closely with the US to combat the flow of fentanyl — a deadly synthetic opioid that has sparked a public health crisis in the US.
The volume of fentanyl seized at the Mexican border since the beginning of 2022 is about 1,000 times greater than what has been captured at the Canadian border, according to US Customs and Border Protection data.
Earlier: Trump’s Opening Salvo on Tariffs Revisits First-Term Playbook
Still, Trudeau is under pressure at home to step up border security and defense spending to assuage Trump’s concerns. Ontario’s Doug Ford, the leader of Canada’s most populous province, said after a meeting of the premiers and prime minister that he has been pushing Trudeau for months to show that Canada will work to address US economic and security worries.
Trudeau was the first Group of Seven leader to have a face-to-face meeting with Trump since the US election.
“The symbolism of Trudeau going down to Palm Beach on bended knee to say ‘Please don’t’ is very, very powerful,” said Fen Hampson, professor of international affairs at Carleton University in Ottawa.
“The stakes are enormously high and Trudeau has to deliver on this,” Hampson said. “Otherwise, it’s going to be seen by Canadians as a failed mission, because we all know why he’s going down there and it’s not to baste the turkey for Trump.”
Canada and the US have one of the world’s largest bilateral trading relationships, worth more than $900 billion a year, and it’s the largest external supplier of crude oil to the US, pumping millions of barrels a day to refineries in the Midwest and elsewhere. Economists see Mexico and Canada taking the biggest economic hit if Trump follows through on his pledge for broad tariffs against US imports.
Trump has made tariffs a centerpiece of his economic agenda, vowing to use them across the board against both US allies and adversaries to extract concessions and force businesses to reshore manufacturing jobs. Mainstream economists have warned that the levies threaten to raise prices for consumers, would fail to raise the revenue he is predicting and are poised to reduce or redirect trade flows.
Tariffs on Mexico and Canada also threaten to reignite a trade feud from Trump’s first term in office, when he forced the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
The rebranded trade pact, dubbed the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, allows for duty-free trade across a wide range of sectors, while changing the regulations for a variety of industries including auto manufacturing.
--With assistance from Derek Decloet, Randy Thanthong-Knight, Thomas Seal and Laura Dhillon Kane.
©2024 Bloomberg
Trump tariffs could lead to ‘zero economic growth in Canada’: economist
Related Stories
Daniel Johnson
Journalist, BNNBloomberg.ca
November 26, 2024
BNNBLOOMBERG
One economist says Donald Trump’s new proposed tariffs on Canada and other nations could bring economic growth to a halt in Canada if implemented, though he thinks the comments follow Trump’s typical strategy for negotiations.
Bloomberg News reported Monday that the U.S. president-elect pledged new tariffs on Canada, along with Mexico and China. On his Truth Social network, Trump said he would introduce 25 per cent tariffs on all products from Canada and Mexico as well as an additional 10 per cent on all goods from China. According to CTV News, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his government are expected to face questions about the proposed new tariffs from the premiers at a meeting Wednesday.
“We ran some numbers this morning and what it looks like is that if 25 per cent tariffs come on Canada on (a) blanket scale, and we don’t have retaliation, then we’re effectively going to get just zero economic growth in Canada with higher inflation,” James Orlando, a director and senior economist at TD Economics, said in an interview Monday.
Under that scenario, he noted, the Bank of Canada would have to bring interest rates lower than its current path in order to support the economy. On Tuesday, Reuters reported that the Bank of Canada said that if tariffs were implemented it would incorporate that into its economic forecasts.
“Now, if there’s retaliation, I haven’t run that scenario, but that just pushes you down even further into negative territory. So before, we weren’t looking at risk of recession, but now there’s going to be greater threat of that happening if there is retaliation on the 25 per cent tariffs,” Orlando said.
Before the U.S. presidential election, an analysis from TD Economics said that a 10 per cent across-the-board tariff could lead to drop in real gross domestic product (GDP) of 2.4 percentage points over two years compared to baseline projections, assuming retaliatory efforts from Canada.
Currency market impact
Currency markets responded to the news with the Canadian dollar trading at a four-year low on Tuesday morning, at around 71 cents U.S., with Bloomberg News reporting broad advances in the U.S. dollar.
Before Trump’s announcement, Orlando said the Canadian dollar was facing weakness as the Canadian economy was underpromoting the U.S. economy, causing the Bank of Canada to lower interest rates at a faster pace than the U.S. Federal Reserve.
“Immediately when everyone got their messages saying that President Trump’s looking to impose (a) 25 per cent tariff on Canada, that just adds to the risk to the Canadian economy,” he said.
He added that if Canada retaliates to the hypothetical 25 per cent tariff, it could result in negative economic growth, putting more pressure on the Canadian dollar.
“So, we said before, if this really escalates, we’re looking at the Canadian dollar breaking below the 70-cent threshold into the 60s,” Orlando said.
He added that if the rhetoric around trade disputes continues to move in the current direction, it will put further pressure on the Canadian dollar.
Industry impact
Orlando highlighted that a 25 per cent tariff could have significant impacts across several key sectors.
“Canada exports around 77 per cent of our exports to the United States. And energy is obviously the biggest one… in terms of volume for Canada shipping to United States,” he said.
However, Canada ships a number of other products to the U.S., including autos, steel and aluminum, which Orlando said were hot-button issues with the previous Trump administration.
He noted that all of those industries are “on the table,” but also that Canada has increased its volume of exports to the U.S. since the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) was put in place.
“These sectors that we’re talking about, not only were they exposed previously, but they’re exposed to a greater extent than they were before, because the trade ties have increased over the last few years, which are good trade ties, but based on what’s happening right now, it does point to greater risk exposure for those industries,” Orlando said.
Negotiation strategy
In the run up to the U.S. presidential election, Orlando said, there was more rhetoric toward the U.S. trade relations with Mexico and China, while Canada was less of a topic of discussion. Since then, he said, Canada appears to have become a higher priority for the incoming U.S. administration.
“I think when it comes to the way President Trump goes about negotiations, this is a very typical strategy. You threaten tariffs as a means to potentially get other concessions,” Orlando said.
He noted that U.S.-Canada trade represents a lot of important relationships, and he foresees a lot of upcoming negotiations.
“I don’t think that it’s necessarily set in stone that a blanket 25 per cent tariff would be implemented across all industries in Canada. I don’t think that’s necessarily going to be the outcome, but it’s definitely a starting point I would say for greater negotiations and getting things ready for renegotiations on USMCA,” Orlando said.
USMCA is scheduled to be renegotiated in 2026.
Trump also typically negotiates on a sector-by-sector or policy-by-policy basis, according to Orlando, who added that negotiations could be centred around things like the digital service tax or on the dairy lobby.
“It’ll be interesting to see where the focus ends up going as things progress,” he said.
One economist says Donald Trump’s new proposed tariffs on Canada and other nations could bring economic growth to a halt in Canada if implemented, though he thinks the comments follow Trump’s typical strategy for negotiations.
Bloomberg News reported Monday that the U.S. president-elect pledged new tariffs on Canada, along with Mexico and China. On his Truth Social network, Trump said he would introduce 25 per cent tariffs on all products from Canada and Mexico as well as an additional 10 per cent on all goods from China. According to CTV News, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his government are expected to face questions about the proposed new tariffs from the premiers at a meeting Wednesday.
“We ran some numbers this morning and what it looks like is that if 25 per cent tariffs come on Canada on (a) blanket scale, and we don’t have retaliation, then we’re effectively going to get just zero economic growth in Canada with higher inflation,” James Orlando, a director and senior economist at TD Economics, said in an interview Monday.
Under that scenario, he noted, the Bank of Canada would have to bring interest rates lower than its current path in order to support the economy. On Tuesday, Reuters reported that the Bank of Canada said that if tariffs were implemented it would incorporate that into its economic forecasts.
“Now, if there’s retaliation, I haven’t run that scenario, but that just pushes you down even further into negative territory. So before, we weren’t looking at risk of recession, but now there’s going to be greater threat of that happening if there is retaliation on the 25 per cent tariffs,” Orlando said.
Before the U.S. presidential election, an analysis from TD Economics said that a 10 per cent across-the-board tariff could lead to drop in real gross domestic product (GDP) of 2.4 percentage points over two years compared to baseline projections, assuming retaliatory efforts from Canada.
Currency market impact
Currency markets responded to the news with the Canadian dollar trading at a four-year low on Tuesday morning, at around 71 cents U.S., with Bloomberg News reporting broad advances in the U.S. dollar.
Before Trump’s announcement, Orlando said the Canadian dollar was facing weakness as the Canadian economy was underpromoting the U.S. economy, causing the Bank of Canada to lower interest rates at a faster pace than the U.S. Federal Reserve.
“Immediately when everyone got their messages saying that President Trump’s looking to impose (a) 25 per cent tariff on Canada, that just adds to the risk to the Canadian economy,” he said.
He added that if Canada retaliates to the hypothetical 25 per cent tariff, it could result in negative economic growth, putting more pressure on the Canadian dollar.
“So, we said before, if this really escalates, we’re looking at the Canadian dollar breaking below the 70-cent threshold into the 60s,” Orlando said.
He added that if the rhetoric around trade disputes continues to move in the current direction, it will put further pressure on the Canadian dollar.
Industry impact
Orlando highlighted that a 25 per cent tariff could have significant impacts across several key sectors.
“Canada exports around 77 per cent of our exports to the United States. And energy is obviously the biggest one… in terms of volume for Canada shipping to United States,” he said.
However, Canada ships a number of other products to the U.S., including autos, steel and aluminum, which Orlando said were hot-button issues with the previous Trump administration.
He noted that all of those industries are “on the table,” but also that Canada has increased its volume of exports to the U.S. since the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) was put in place.
“These sectors that we’re talking about, not only were they exposed previously, but they’re exposed to a greater extent than they were before, because the trade ties have increased over the last few years, which are good trade ties, but based on what’s happening right now, it does point to greater risk exposure for those industries,” Orlando said.
Negotiation strategy
In the run up to the U.S. presidential election, Orlando said, there was more rhetoric toward the U.S. trade relations with Mexico and China, while Canada was less of a topic of discussion. Since then, he said, Canada appears to have become a higher priority for the incoming U.S. administration.
“I think when it comes to the way President Trump goes about negotiations, this is a very typical strategy. You threaten tariffs as a means to potentially get other concessions,” Orlando said.
He noted that U.S.-Canada trade represents a lot of important relationships, and he foresees a lot of upcoming negotiations.
“I don’t think that it’s necessarily set in stone that a blanket 25 per cent tariff would be implemented across all industries in Canada. I don’t think that’s necessarily going to be the outcome, but it’s definitely a starting point I would say for greater negotiations and getting things ready for renegotiations on USMCA,” Orlando said.
USMCA is scheduled to be renegotiated in 2026.
Trump also typically negotiates on a sector-by-sector or policy-by-policy basis, according to Orlando, who added that negotiations could be centred around things like the digital service tax or on the dairy lobby.
“It’ll be interesting to see where the focus ends up going as things progress,” he said.
Related Stories
Daniel Johnson
Journalist, BNNBloomberg.ca
No comments:
Post a Comment