U.S.-Canada rift sets negative tone for meeting

QUEBEC CITY — When President Ronald Reagan visited Quebec three decades ago, he was so friendly with Prime Minister Brian Mulroney they sang a song together.

Expect no duets when President Donald Trump makes his first presidential visit to Canada on Friday for a summit in a picturesque Quebec town with the leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy democracies. The mood will likely be something less than harmonious.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hasn’t been shy about venting his fury with Trump for imposing tariffs on steel and aluminum imports — including Canada’s — and for justifying the protectionist move by calling those imports a threat to U.S. national security.

Trudeau has charged that he found the tariffs “insulting” and said such tactics are hardly how two close allies and trading partners that fought side-by-side in World War II, Korea and Afghanistan should treat one another. The Trump administration has also clashed with Canada over the president’s insistence that the 24-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement involving the United States, Canada and Mexico be rewritten to better serve the U.S.

The prime minister had at first refrained from criticizing Trump, apparently in the hope that he could forge a personal relationship that might help preserve the landmark free trade deal, a forerunner of which Reagan and Mulroney negotiated. Those two leaders became fast friends and famously sang “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling” together in Quebec City in 1985.

Trudeau’s courting of Trump appeared to work for a time. The president had initially exempted Canada from the steel and aluminum tariffs in March. But Trudeau became exasperated after Trump let the exemption expire last week.

“We’ll continue to make arguments based on logic and common sense,” Trudeau said, “and hope that eventually they will prevail against an administration that doesn’t always align itself around those principles.”

The prime minister had hoped to visit Washington last week to complete what he thought would be the final stages of the NAFTA renegotiation. But Vice President Mike Pence called and demanded he agree to a “sunset clause” that would end NAFTA unless the three countries agreed to extend it every five years.

Trudeau refused, and canceled the proposed visit. NAFTA talks stalled. Since then, Trump has sounded hostile toward Canada.

Nelson Wiseman, a professor at the University of Toronto, said he can’t recall relations between U.S. and Canada being worse. He said the G-7 meeting will appear to be six lined up against one. There has been speculation that Trump might walk out of the meetings — or decide not to show up.

“We can never underestimate the president’s capability to provide theater in a scenario like this,” said Daniel Ujczo, a trade lawyer. “And it would play well in places like Ohio ... world leaders in one of these globalist meetings, and they are ganging up on him.”