TRUDEAU-TRUMP MEETING BODES WELL
First face-to-face between prime minister and president focused on economic issues
Justin Trudeau performed the political equivalent of swimming with the sharks on Monday, as Canada’s prime minister had his first face-to-face meeting with Donald Trump.
The new U.S. president, like a great white shark, is highly unpredictable and can attack at any moment, as the leaders of Mexico and Australia learned during the past month.
By that measure, Trudeau did well, avoiding becoming chum in a $885-billion bilateral relationship.
The meeting went smoothly, with both sides focused on what the two countries share in common, rather than our differences.
Of note for Alberta, the two leaders released a joint statement that included a separate section on energy security and the environment. Co-operation on these issues is “inextricably linked,” it states, and the prime minister and president are committed to improving ties in this area.
The document mentions TransCanada’s Keystone XL oil pipeline, which would ship Alberta crude to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries. The project recently won Trump’s backing.
“We have built the world’s largest energy-trading relationship. We share the goals of energy security, a robust and secure energy grid and a strong and resilient energy infrastructure,” according to the statement.
This should be music to the ear of the oilpatch and provincial government, which have been nervously trying to figure out what direction the Trump administration will move next on the trade front.
At a joint news conference, Trump pledged to build a “stronger trading relationship” with Canada and later said his plans to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement aren’t focused on his northern neighbour, but on Mexico.
“We have a very outstanding trade relationship with Canada. We’ll be tweaking it,” the president said.
U.S. President Donald Trump says the trade relationship with Canada will only be “tweaked.” The trouble is a little tweak in America can be a powerful thump in Canada.
The pleasure-pain imbalance is so severe that sometimes the Americans don’t even realize it hurts.
The statistics prove it. Only 18 per cent of America’s foreign trade comes to Canada. Fully 76 per cent of Canada’s goes to the U.S.
So, it’s best not to get too euphoric over Monday’s White House meeting between Trump and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Genuinely encouraging as it was, real problems lie behind the friendly language.
Interim Conservative Leader Rona Ambrose pointed out that the Americans have major grievances with our beef imports, and supply management in several areas of agriculture. There’s also softwood lumber (that old thing).
Ambrose worries that Trump’s aggressive deregulation and lowtax policy could make Canada uncompetitive. In that case, we could lose even if trade rules are untouched. But she also had a kind word for Trudeau — one of very few, from her.
“I’ve been on the record about some of the things Donald Trump has said about women,” she said.
“But this is a delicate situation here, I don’t think it’s going to help anyone in this country if the prime minister went to Washington and started a fight with the president.”
Trudeau certainly didn’t. His diplomatic performance, I thought, was masterful in both body language to two official languages.
He didn’t fawn over Trump, reach for his hand, look for an Obama style back-slap. The PM gave Trump no chance to offer a dismissive gesture (not that the president seemed inclined to flip one). He kept a dignified emotional distance without being disrespectful.
Trudeau did a lot better, on balance, than British Prime Minister Theresa May, who almost started an uprising at home by casually inviting Trump for a visit.
Patrick Gossage, who was Pierre Trudeau’s press secretary in the 1970s and 1980s, said, “(Justin) Trudeau’s far too smart to have raised anything that would have annoyed Trump.
“He’s well brought-up — unlike his father, who would raise things with (Ronald) Reagan from time to time that Reagan did not like at all,” Gossage told the CBC.
Reagan, who served as president from 1981 to 1989, once said after Trudeau urged him to press detente with Eastern Europe: “Damn it, Pierre, what do you want me to do?”
Trudeau needled earlier President Richard Nixon so artfully Nixon called him, in tapes released later, both a “son of a bitch” and an “asshole.” Trudeau rejoined: “I’ve been called worse things by better people.”
Relations were often testy then, maybe because the stakes weren’t nearly so high. NAFTA did not yet exist. Now, trade is so vital that Trudeau’s key goal must be to protect it.
Both leaders made a great deal of the special relationship. If anything, Trump was more gracious than Trudeau. The president had no complaints about border security, trade irritants, or Canadian attitudes toward his many pronouncements.
He said to Trudeau, “On behalf of our country, it’s an honour to be with you.” At a joint press conference he called Canada “our great friend, neighbour and ally.”
An event with female leaders, including TransAlta CEO Dawn Farrell, coincided with the announcement of a United States-Canada Council for Advancement of Women Entrepreneurs and Business Leaders.
It doesn’t do Trump any harm, after his many misadventures on the far frontier of sexism, to catch a lift with Justin Trudeau’s avowed feminism.
The four-page communique summing up the day is a symphony of mutual support on trade, energy, border security, international alliances (including NATO and NORAD), the fight against ISIS and much more.
Some of it was obviously written by Canadian officials who have been pounding home the importance of cross-border trade.
Most promising of all, given Trump’s reputation and public record, was the civil, respectful, bluster-free greeting he extended to both Trudeau and Canada. May these blessings endure.