Canada Mexico leaders stress cooperation after Trump tariffs threat
Trudeau calls meeting to 'talk about US'
The leaders of Mexico and Canada are urging dialogue and cooperation after United States President-elect Donald Trump pledged to impose 25-percent tariffs on the two countries when he takes office early next year.
During a news conference on Tuesday, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said she planned to send a letter to Trump stressing the need to work together on joint challenges.
Trudeau addressed the phone call again this morning, when he spoke before a cabinet meeting in Ottawa.
He says the pair talked about the “intense and effective” connections that exist between the US and Canada.
The Canadian prime minister emphasised there would be cooperation within his country’s government on the topic, and said he had called a first ministers meeting “to talk about the United States” at 17:00 EST on Wednesday, the BBC has learned.
“One of the really important things is that we be all pulling together on this. The Team Canada approach is what works,” Trudeau said, reacting to the major trade threat on his way in to Tuesday’s closed-door cabinet meeting on Parliament Hill.
Hours before Trump declared his intent to hit Canada with this sizeable tariff, Canada’s premiers had penned a letter to the prime minister asking him to hold an urgent first ministers’ meeting before Trump re-takes office.
Noting that he talked to a few premiers last night – including Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Quebec Premier Francois Legault – the prime minister said he agreed the group needed to get together to “talk about the United States.”
