Trump tells crowd about trade spat with Trudeau

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump regaled a rally of supporters with a story about a disagreement with Canada’s prime minister, then sprinkled his tale with some questionable statistics about international trade.

Trump told a partisan crowd in Florida on Friday night that he and Justin Trudeau had a closed-door debate about trade balances.

He described it during the part of his speech where he blasted bad trade deals as one of the reasons he won last year’s election, and reiterated his promise to either cancel or renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.

He lamented a $71-billion US trade deficit with Mexico, then added that there’s also a deficit with Canada. That’s where he described his exchange with Trudeau — who apparently kept telling Trump the U.S. has no trade deficit with Canada.

“I like the prime minister very much. Prime Minister Trudeau. Nice guy. Good guy. No, I like him. But we had a meeting … He said: ‘No, no, you have a trade surplus.’ I said: ‘No we don’t.’ He said: ‘No, no you have a trade surplus,’ ” Trump told the Florida crowd.

“[Trudeau] said: ‘I’m telling you that Canada has a deficit with the United States.’ I told my people — in front of a lot of people — I said: ‘Go out and check.’ ”

He said his staff found Trudeau left out some key details, pertaining to trade in goods: “[Trudeau] was right. Except he forgot two categories: Lumber timber; and energy. Other than that, he was right. When you add them all together, we actually have a $17-billion deficit with Canada.” That’s not what his own government’s stats say. Statistics from the website of the office of the U.S. Trade Representative — the very office handling NAFTA negotiations — paint a portrait opposite to Trump’s. It says, of last year’s trade balance: “The U.S. goods and services trade surplus with Canada was $12.5 billion US in 2016.”

That reflects a large surplus in trade in services of $24.6 billion, mitigated by a deficit in goods of $12.1 billion.