French PM, Trudeau tout trade deal
Also discuss UN mission to Africa
OTTAWA• Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is warning Europe that failing to sign a free- trade deal with Canada would send the wrong signals in a post-Brexit world.
Trudeau and Manuel Valls, France’s prime minister who is on a two- day visit to Canada, affirmed their mutual support Thursday for a Canada- European Union free- trade deal that faces growing resistance in parts of Europe.
“If Europe cannot manage to sign this agreement, that sends a very clear message not only to Europeans but to the whole world that Europe is choosing a path that is not productive either for its citizens or for the world. That would be a shame,” Trudeau said.
Valls revealed that he expects the prime minister to be in Brussels Oct. 27 to sign the deal.
The two leaders travelled to Montreal later in the day for a luncheon panel discussion with Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard.
Couillard, Trudeau and Valls all praised the deal and talked about the urgent need to sign it, to a crowd of several hundred invited guests at the event hosted by the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal.
During the talk, Trudeau reiterated his description of the deal as a “progressive agreement” that permits governments to legislate in order to defend the rights of labour, the environment and other issues “our constituents care about.”
Climate change and the free- trade deal have been singled out by Trudeau’s office as being among Canada’s top priorities.
Earlier, during a breakfast at the French embassy, Valls reiterated France’s desire to see Canada send peacekeepers to West Africa to join the fight against Islamic militants.
He dismissed concerns by some analysts that the Canadian Forces are out of peacekeeping practice after a decade fighting in Afghanistan.
Canadian t roops have proved their mettle as trainers in Iraq, “so I don’t see why they couldn’t do the same in Africa” for local troops there, said Valls.
“They need the training and the mentoring. And I’m convinced that the Canadians have all the required resources for that.”
The Trudeau government has said it will commit 600 peacekeepers to UN missions and France has been pushing Canada to join the UN mission in West Africa.
France has 3,000 troops fighting a separate counterinsurgency mission in several countries that used to be its colonies, under the banner of Operation Barkhane.
Meanwhile, Valls offered an unequivocal take on the U. S. presidential election: Hillary Clinton is the preferred choice, he said.
U. S. President Barack Obama was “elected by the world” and “(Donald) Trump is rejected by the world,” Valls said during the breakfast, which was attended by a small group of journalists.
Valls said he and Trudeau had discussed the U. S. election the previous evening, but he refused to divulge what exactly his Canadian counterpart had said.
“We were laughing about it yesterday with Justin. It’s up to the American people to make the decision,” he said.
He and Trudeau also talked about Trump’s influence on “spirits in Europe,” he added.
“The only personality in France that is comparable to Trump is Marine Le Pen,” Valls noted, referring to the controversial far right- wing leader of the National Front.
For Trudeau’s part, the prime minister stepped only slightly beyond where he has been for months on the matter of Trump — that he will seek to work with whomever the U. S. people choose as their president.
When asked about the allegations of sexual assault swirling around the Republican nominee, a stone-faced Trudeau — a self- avowed feminist — would only say that he “has stood clearly and strongly all my life around issues of sexual harassment.”
“I don’t need to make any further comment at this time,” he told a joint news conference on Parliament Hill.