Trudeau: Americans Would Suffer Too    12/03 06:12

   

   TORONTO (AP) -- Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told Donald Trump that 
Americans would also suffer if the president-elect follows through on a plan to 
impose sweeping tariffs on Canadian products, a Canadian minister who attended 
their recent dinner said Monday.

   Trump threatened to impose tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico if 
they don't stop what he called the flow of drugs and migrants across their 
borders with the United States. He said on social media last week that he would 
impose a 25% tax on all products entering the U.S. from Canada and Mexico as 
one of his first executive orders.

   Canadian Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc, whose responsibilities 
include border security, attended a dinner with Trump and Trudeau at Trump's 
Mar-a-Lago club on Friday.

   Trudeau requested the meeting in a bid to avoid the tariffs by convincing 
Trump that the northern border is nothing like the U.S. southern border with 
Mexico.

   "The prime minister of course spoke about the importance of protecting the 
Canadian economy and Canadian workers from tariffs, but we also discussed with 
our American friends the negative impact that those tariffs could have on their 
economy, on affordability in the United States as well," LeBlanc said in 
Parliament.

   If Trump makes good on his threat to slap 25% tariffs on everything imported 
from Mexico and Canada, the price increases that could follow will collide with 
his campaign promise to give American families a break from inflation.

   Economists say companies would have little choice but to pass along the 
added costs, dramatically raising prices for food, clothing, automobiles, 
alcohol and other goods.

   The Produce Distributors Association, a Washington trade group, said last 
week that tariffs will raise prices for fresh fruit and vegetables and hurt 
U.S. farmers when the countries retaliate.

   Canada is already examining possible retaliatory tariffs on certain items 
from the U.S. should Trump follow through on the threat.

   After his dinner with Trump, Trudeau returned home without assurances the 
president-elect will back away from threatened tariffs on all products from the 
major American trading partner. Trump called the talks "productive" but 
signaled no retreat from a pledge that Canada says unfairly lumps it in with 
Mexico over the flow of drugs and migrants into the United States.

   "The idea that we came back empty handed is completely false," LeBlanc said. 
"We had a very productive discussion with Mr. Trump and his future Cabinet 
secretaries. ... The commitment from Mr. Trump to continue to work with us was 
far from empty handed."

   Joining Trump and Trudeau at dinner were Howard Lutnick, Trump's nominee for 
commerce secretary, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Trump's pick to lead the 
Interior Department, and Mike Waltz, Trump's choice to be his national security 
adviser.

   Canada's ambassador to the U.S., Kirsten Hillman, told The Associated Press 
on Sunday that "the message that our border is so vastly different than the 
Mexican border was really understood." Hillman, who sat at an adjacent table to 
Trudeau and Trump, said Canada is not the problem when it comes to drugs and 
migrants.

   On Monday, Mexico's president rejected those comments.

   "Mexico must be respected, especially by its trading partners," President 
Claudia Sheinbaum said. She said Canada had its own problems with fentanyl 
consumption and "could only wish they had the cultural riches Mexico has."

   Flows of migrants and seizures of drugs at the two countries' border are 
vastly different. U.S. customs agents seized 43 pounds of fentanyl at the 
Canadian border during the last fiscal year, compared with 21,100 pounds at the 
Mexican border.

   Most of the fentanyl reaching the U.S. -- where it causes about 70,000 
overdose deaths annually -- is made by Mexican drug cartels using precursor 
chemicals smuggled from Asia.

   On immigration, the U.S. Border Patrol reported 1.53 million encounters with 
migrants at the southwest border with Mexico between October 2023 and September 
2024. That compares to 23,721 encounters at the Canadian border during that 
time.

   Canada is the top export destination for 36 U.S. states. Nearly $3.6 billion 
Canadian (US$2.7 billion) worth of goods and services cross the border each 
day. About 60% of U.S. crude oil imports are from Canada, and 85% of U.S. 
electricity imports as well.

   Canada is also the largest foreign supplier of steel, aluminum and uranium 
to the U.S. and has 34 critical minerals and metals that the Pentagon is eager 
for and investing for national security.