TORONTO (AP) — Two Canadian Cabinet ministers met with President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for trade secretary at Mar-a-Lago on Friday, as Canada tries to avoid sweeping tariffs when Trump takes office.
Treasury Secretary Dominic LeBlanc and Secretary of State Mélanie Joly met with Howard Lutnick, Trump’s nominee for Commerce Secretary, and with North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, chosen by Trump to lead the Interior Department.
Trump has threatened to impose 25% tariffs on all Canadian products if Canada doesn’t stem what he calls a flow of migrants and fentanyl into the United States — even though far fewer of each enter the U.S. from Canada than from Mexico , what Trump has done. also threatened.
Trusted news and daily treats, straight to your inbox
See for yourself: The Yodel is the source for daily news, entertainment and feel-good stories.
“Minister LeBlanc and Secretary Joly had a positive, productive meeting at Mar-a-Lago with Howard Lutnick and Doug Burgum, following up on the dinner between the Prime Minister and President Trump last month,” said Jean-Sébastien Comeau. a spokesperson for LeBlanc.
Comeau said both ministers outlined measures in Canada’s multibillion-dollar plan to enhance security at the border and reiterated “the shared commitment to strengthen border security and combat the harm caused by fentanyl to save Canadian and American lives.”
Comeau said Lutnick and Burgum agreed to pass the information to Trump.
Trump’s transition team did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
Further discussions are expected in the coming weeks. Joly will also have dinner with U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham on Friday.
Trump has attacked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on social media in recent weeks, calling him the governor of the 51st state.
Trudeau did not immediately respond, but on Thursday he posted a link to a six-minute video on YouTube from 2010 in which American NBC journalist Tom Brokaw “explains Canada to Americans.”
“Some information about Canada for Americans,” Trudeau wrote in the post on X.
The video, which originally aired during the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, explains similarities between the two countries, the vast trading relationship and the Canadian military’s actions in World War II and Afghanistan.
“In our darkest hours, Canada was with us,” Brokaw says in the video. “In the long history of sovereign neighbors, there has never been a relationship as close, productive and peaceful as the U.S. and Canada.”
Trudeau has told Trump that Americans would also suffer if the newly elected president implements a plan to impose sweeping tariffs on Canadian products.
About 60% of U.S. crude oil imports and 85% of U.S. electricity imports come from Canada. Alberta alone sends 4.3 million barrels of oil per day to the US, which typically consumes about 20 million barrels per day.
Trump has also brought up the US trade deficit with Canada, incorrectly calling it a subsidy.
Canada’s ambassador to Washington, Kirsten Hillman, has said the U.S. had a $75 billion trade deficit with Canada last year. But she noted that a third of what Canada sells to the U.S. is energy exports and said there is a shortage when oil prices are high.
Nearly $3.6 billion Canadian dollars ($2.7 billion) worth of goods and services cross the border every day. Canada is the main export destination for 36 US states.
Migrant flows and drug seizures are vastly different at the two U.S. land borders. U.S. Customs agents seized 43 pounds of fentanyl at the Canadian border last fiscal year, compared to 21,100 pounds at the Mexican border.
Most of the fentanyl that reaches the U.S. — where it causes about 70,000 overdose deaths annually — is made by Mexican drug cartels using precursor chemicals smuggled from Asia.
On the immigration front, U.S. Border Patrol reported 1.53 million encounters with migrants at the southwestern border with Mexico between October 2023 and September 2024. That compares to 23,721 encounters at the Canadian border during that time.
