US President-elect Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met in Florida to debate issues about medicine and migrant flows.
Canada’s ambassador to the US has mentioned that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was capable of convey the variations between Canada’s border points and Mexico’s throughout a dinner with US President-elect Donald Trump.
The assembly, held at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Friday, was organized to deal with the incoming US President’s threats to impose tariffs on all merchandise from Canada and Mexico over issues about medicine and migrant flows.
Trump final week mentioned that he would impose a 25% tariff on all merchandise getting into the US from Canada and Mexico as one in every of his first government orders.
Kirsten Hillman, Canada’s ambassador in Washington, mentioned that Trudeau had efficiently made the case to Trump that there is no such thing as a comparability between the Canada-US border and Mexico-US border.
“The message that our border is so vastly completely different than the Mexican border was actually understood,” Hillman mentioned.
Hillman reemphasised Trudeau’s argument, highlighting that nearly no fentanyl is trafficked from Canada to the US. She famous that whereas there are occasional seizures, authorities say these shipments are for private use, not a part of prison trafficking. Hillman mentioned 99.8% of the fentanyl seized by US authorities originates from Mexico.
“Additionally with respect to people, unlawful people crossing illegally … 0.6% have been of complete interceptions from Canada,” Hillman added.
US customs brokers seized 43 kilos of fentanyl on the Canadian border final fiscal yr, in contrast with 21,100 kilos on the Mexican border.
Immigration arrests paint the same image: the US Border Patrol made 56,530 arrests on the Mexican border in October alone, whereas 23,721 arrests have been made on the Canadian border between October 2023 and September 2024.
“The details are exhausting to disclaim,” Hillman mentioned.
Border safety and commerce deficit
Hillman additionally outlined Canada’s dedication to enhancing border safety, with plans for extra helicopters, drones, and legislation enforcement personnel. She additionally pointed to an settlement between Canada and the US permitting migrants caught crossing illegally into the US to be returned to Canada — a coverage that Mexico and the US don’t have.
The US’s commerce deficit with Canada was additionally raised throughout the dinner, Hillman mentioned.
She mentioned that $75 billion (€71 billion) of final yr’s deficit consists of important vitality exports and positioned commerce steadiness in context.
“We’re one-tenth the dimensions of the US, so a balanced commerce deal would imply per capita we’re shopping for 10 instances extra from the US than they’re shopping for from us.”
Canada is the highest export vacation spot for 36 US states, with day by day cross-border commerce amounting to $3.6 billion Canadian (€2.4 billion). Canada can be the biggest international provider of metal, aluminium, uranium, and important minerals necessary for US nationwide safety.
ADVERTISEMENTMoreover, roughly 60% of the US’ crude oil imports and 85% of its electrical energy imports come from Canada.
Canada is among the many world’s most trade-dependent nations, with 77% of its exports destined for the US.
Whereas Trump known as the discussions “productive” on Sunday in a social media submit, he gave no indication of backing down from his tariff threats.
Hillman mentioned the dinner between Trump and Trudeau was profitable, if not good.
ADVERTISEMENT“If he (Trump) clearly mentioned there can be no tariffs that will have been higher, however there was no sensible expectation of that,” she mentioned.
