Trump tees off on NAFTA talks
UNITED NATIONS, N.Y. — U.S. President Donald Trump let Canada know how he really feels Wednesday — sharpening his tariff threat, calling out Chrystia Freeland and claiming he denied Justin Trudeau a bilateral meeting, all because of the federal government’s hard bargaining on North American trade.
Trump made the comments late Wednesday during a free-wheeling news conference at the end of his two days at the United Nations General Assembly. He was asked if he had denied Trudeau a request for face time while the two leaders were at the UN.
“Yeah, I did,” Trump said. “His tariffs are too high and he doesn’t seem to want to move. And I’ve told him, ‘Forget about it.”’ But the president wasn’t done. He then reiterated his threat to slap punitive tariffs on Canadian auto imports to the U.S., a both barrels tactic experts on either side of the border have warned would devastate the industry.
“Frankly, we’re thinking about just taxing cars coming in from Canada,” Trump said. “That’s the motherlode, that’s the big one. We’re very unhappy with the negotiations and the negotiating style of Canada.”
And then, for good measure: “We don’t like their representative very much.”
That appeared to be a reference to Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, a former journalist and careful tactician whose star turn in Trudeau’s government has earned her deep respect in the Liberal caucus and beyond.
Officials in the Prime Minister’s Office disputed the president’s statement — insisting for the second time this week that they did not request a meeting and declining further comment.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether Trump was responding to comments Trudeau made earlier at a news conference of his own — similar to what happened over the summer following the G7 meetings in Quebec.
Trump had already left Charlevoix and Trudeau was giving a seemingly benign defence of Canadian interests at a post-summit news conference when the president suddenly erupted into a bitter Twitter tirade from the confines of an airborne Air Force One.
Trump has said “a few times” that a new deal would mitigate the tariff issue.