Canada’s ambassador to the United States said Sunday that prime minister Justin Trudeau was successful in getting president-elect Donald Trump and key US cabinet nominees to understand that lumping Canada in with Mexico over the flow of drugs and migrants into the US is unfair.
Kirsten Hillman, Canada’s ambassador in Washington, told The Associated Press in an interview that Trudeau’s dinner with Mr Trump on Friday was a very important step in trying to get Mr Trump to back away from threatened tariffs on all products from the major American trading partner.
Ms Hillman was at Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida and sat at an adjacent table to Mr Trudeau and Mr Trump.
Mr Trump threatened to impose tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico if they did not stop what he called the flow of drugs and migrants across their borders.
He said in a social media post last Monday he would impose a 25% tax on all products entering the US from Canada and Mexico as one of his first executive orders.
Ms Hillman said Mr Trudeau asked to see Mr Trump in person on a phone call on Monday and Mr Trump invited him to dinner on Friday.
President-elect Donald Trump listens during an America First Policy Institute gala at his Mar-a-Lago estate (Alex Brandon/AP)
At the dinner, Ms Hillman said the case was made to Mr Trump there is no comparison between the Canada-US border and Mexico-US border.
“The message that our border is so vastly different than the Mexican border was really understood,” Ms Hillman said.
Ms Hillman said the bulk of Friday night’s dinner centred around Mr Trump’s border concerns. The ambassador said a priority of Trudeau’s was to point out the degree of difference.
Ms Hillman said there is no comparison, noting there is essentially zero trafficking of fentanyl from Canada to the United States.
She said there are seizures but authorities say those are personal use seizures and not criminal trafficking. She said that 99.8% of the fentanyl seized by US authorities in the US comes from Mexico.
“Also with respect to individuals, illegal individuals crossing illegally, Canada last year was less than one %, 0.6 % were of total interceptions from Canada,” Ms Hillman said.
US customs agents seized 43 pounds of fentanyl at the Canadian border last fiscal year, compared with 21,100 pounds at the Mexican border.
On immigration, 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 — and Ms Hillman said the migrant numbers are coming down since the summer.
“The facts are hard to deny,” Ms Hillman said.
But Ms Hillman said Canada is ready to make new investments in border security and there are plans for more helicopters, drones and law enforcement officers.
She also noted an agreement between Canada and the United States that allows for migrants caught crossing illegally into the United States to be sent back to Canada. She said that was talked about.
She said Mexico and the US do not have a similar agreement.
At the dinner that lasted three hours, Ms Hillman said America’s trade deficit with Canada was also raised. Ms Hillman said the US had a 75 billion dollar (£59 billion) trade deficit with Canada last year but noted a third of what Canada sells to the US is energy exports and prices have been high.
Justin Trudeau (Adrian Wyld /The Canadian Press via AP)
“Trade balances are something that he focuses so it’s important to engage in that conversation but to put it into context,” Ms Hillman said.
“We are one-tenth the size of the United States so a balanced trade deal would mean per capita we are buying 10 times more from the US than they are buying from us. If that’s his metric we will certainly engage on that.”
Joining Mr Trump and Mr Trudeau at dinner were Howard Lutnick, Mr Trump’s nominee for commerce secretary, North Dakota governor Doug Burgum, Mr Trump’s pick to lead the Interior Department, Mike Waltz, Mr Trump’s choice to be his national security adviser, and the three men’s wives.
Also at the dinner were David McCormick, recently-elected US senator from Pennsylvania, and his wife, Dina Powell, a former deputy national security adviser under Mr Trump, as well as Canadian Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc, whose responsibilities include border security, and Katie Telford, Mr Trudeau’s chief of staff.
Ms Hillman said Canadian and incoming Mr Trump administration officials will work on Mr Trump’s concerns in the coming weeks.
Mr Trump called the talks “productive” on Sunday in a social media post but signalled no retreat from his tariff pledge.
Ms Hillman said Mr Trump and Mr Trudeau “get along well” and the dinner was also a chance to socialise.
She said Mr Trump used his iPad to play music and she said Mr Trump told Mr Trudeau he’s a big fan of Canadian singer Celine Dion.
“I don’t think it could have been better, to be frank. Okay, I’ll take that back, I’ll change that. If he obviously said there would be no tariffs that would have been better but there was no realistic expectation of that,” Ms Hillman said.
Canada is the top export destination for 36 US states. Nearly 3.6 billion Canadian dollars (£2 million) worth of goods and services cross the border each day.
About 60% of US crude oil imports are from Canada and 85% of US electricity imports are from Canada.
Canada is also the largest foreign supplier of steel, aluminium and uranium to the US . and has 34 critical minerals and metals that the Pentagon is eager to invest in for national security.
Canada is one of the most trade-dependent countries in the world, and 77% of Canada’s exports go to the US.