Not going so smoothly
Freeland takes high road as explosive Trump comments detonate in Washington
With a Friday deadline looming, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland is donning her best poker face as U.S. President Donald Trump’s blunt assessment of the NAFTA talks spoken in confidence but leaked to the media - lands with a thud on the negotiating table. Trump, in a conversation Thursday with Bloomberg News, gave a dismissive off-the-record assessment of the Canadian position on major NAFTA sticking points that was leaked to the Toronto Star newspaper and published Friday morning. “If I say no - the answer’s no. “If I say no, then you’re going to put that, and it’s going to be so insulting they’re not going to be able to make a deal ... I can’t kill these people,” Trump said of the Canadian government, according to the Star report, which cited an anonymous source. Any deal with Canada would be “totally on our terms,” Trump was quoted by the Star as saying. The newspaper said Bloomberg has not disputed the authenticity of the comments. Freeland emerged from the morning’s talks just minutes after news of Trump’s remarks rippled through the media corps gathered outside the offices of the U.S. trade representative, where the negotiations have been taking place all week. Despite repeated questions about whether the comments risked scuttling the talks, a stoic Freeland maintained her diplomatic countenance, saying only that both the Canadian negotiating team and USTR officials were working hard to reach an agreement. “We’re not there yet,” she cautioned. Asked directly about Trump’s remarks and whether the Americans are bargaining in good faith, Freeland walked a diplomatic tightrope. “Ambassador (Robert) Lighthizer and his team, throughout this negotiation, have been working really, really hard,” she said. “Our starting positions at the beginning were very far apart. I think, at this point, we know what each side needs and we’re working hard to find a way. My jobs it to find the deal that works for Canada...