Visit by Canada’s foreign affairs and finance ministers comes as country hopes to avoid 25-percent US tariffs.
The Canadian ministers of finance and foreign affairs are set to hold talks in the US state of Florida with aides to Donald Trump, as the incoming United States president’s threat of hitting Canada with steep tariffs looms large.
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly and Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc travelled to Palm Beach, Florida, for discussions on Friday about the effects tariffs would have on both countries.
Late last month, Trump threatened to slap 25-percent tariffs on all Canadian goods if the US’s northern neighbour did not do more to stem the flow of illegal drugs and irregular migration over its border.
LeBlanc’s office said in a statement on Thursday that the Canadian ministers would highlight “the negative impacts that the imposition of 25 percent tariffs on Canadian goods would have on both Canada and the United States”.
Friday’s meeting will also focus on Canada’s efforts to combat fentanyl trafficking and illegal migration, the office added.
It was not immediately clear which Trump advisers the ministers would be meeting with, but LeBlanc said last week that he planned to meet after Christmas with Tom Homan, Trump’s incoming “border czar”.
Politico also reported on Friday that the Canadian ministers were expected to speak with Howard Lutnick, a billionaire businessman who has been tapped by Trump to be the next US secretary of commerce.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government has stressed the importance of strong US-Canada ties in the face of Trump’s tariff threat, with Trudeau himself travelling to Mar-a-Lago in late November for in-person talks with the US president-elect.
But Trudeau, whose popularity has dropped significantly over the past few years, is under pressure from Conservative politicians at the federal and provincial levels to resolve any problems before Trump takes office next month.
The prime minister also faces calls to resign as the leader of his Liberal Party in advance of federal elections next year.
Those calls grew louder this month when Trudeau’s longtime deputy, Chrystia Freeland, resigned from her cabinet posts over what she said was a disagreement over how best to handle the incoming US president.
“The incoming administration in the United States is pursuing a policy of aggressive economic nationalism, including a threat of 25 per cent tariffs. We need to take that threat extremely seriously,” Freeland, who had served as finance and deputy prime minister, wrote in her resignation letter.
“That means keeping our fiscal powder dry today, so we have the reserves we may need for a coming tariff war,” she said.
Experts say that US tariffs combined with reciprocal measures by Canada would harm the economies of both countries.
The US and Canada exchanged $2.7bn ($3.6bn Canadian) in goods and services daily across their shared border last year, according to Canadian government figures.
In recent weeks, Trudeau’s government has announced new investments to bolster security at the US-Canada border, including the use of “helicopters, drones, and mobile surveillance towers” by Canadian federal police along the expansive frontier.
But it remains unclear if the new measures will be enough to stave off Trump’s tariff threat.
Homan, the incoming US “border czar”, told Canadian broadcaster CTV News in an interview earlier this month that Canadian immigration laws are “too lax”.
“Of course, that’s up to Canada to change those rules,” Homan said, adding that he was “grateful” that Canadian ministers are “coming to the table to talk about border security because the northern border is a huge national security risk”.
Human rights advocates have urged Canada not to demonise migrants and asylum seekers in an effort to appease the incoming US administration, which has promised to pursue a hardline anti-immigrant policy when Trump takes office next month.
Meanwhile, as uncertainty continues to swirl around his tariffs threat, Trump has repeatedly mocked Trudeau and Canada, referring to the prime minister as the “governor” of a country that he says should be the 51st US state.
On Wednesday, the US president-elect said he had urged Canadian hockey legend Wayne Gretzky to run to be the country’s next leader.
“I said, ‘Wayne, why don’t you run for Prime Minister of Canada, soon to be known as the Governor of Canada – You would win easily, you wouldn’t even have to campaign,’” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
“He had no interest, but I think the people of Canada should start a DRAFT WAYNE GRETZKY Movement.”