Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday that President-elect Trump's public musings about annexing Canada's northern neighbor are a distraction from the president's threat to impose hefty tariffs on Canadian imports. He said he thinks there are.
“What's happening in this case is that President Trump, who is a very skilled negotiator, has used that conversation to distract people somewhat from the conversation about 25% tariffs on oil, gas, electricity, steel and aluminum. “And wood and concrete,” Trudeau said in an interview on “The Read” with CNN's Jake Tapper.
“If we go ahead with tariffs, everything American consumers buy from Canada will suddenly become more expensive,” Trudeau said. “And that's something I think we need to focus on a little bit more.
Prime Minister Trudeau said he was not concerned about whether the United States would actually annex Canada.
“That's not going to happen,” Prime Minister Trudeau said. “Canadians are incredibly proud to be Canadian. One of the easiest ways we define ourselves is, 'We're not Americans.'
“It doesn't really matter because there's such a deep sense of pride,” he added.
President Trump has repeatedly floated the idea of Canada becoming the 51st province, mocking Trudeau by calling him “the governor.”
President Trump doubled down on his proposal to unify the United States and Canada on Tuesday after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced he would step down in the coming months. On Tuesday, he threatened “economic power” to annex Canada.
Prime Minister Trudeau said in an interview with CNN that his resignation had nothing to do with President Trump's victory in the United States. Trudeau said he worked well with Trump during his first term in office, pointing to the renegotiated United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) trade agreement. It's a “win-win” for both countries.
When asked if his decision to resign was related to President Trump's re-election, Prime Minister Trudeau said: “Not really.” On the contrary, what we were able to do during Mr. Trump's first term as president was to work together in very difficult circumstances and achieve a very strong win-win outcome in the Canada-U.S. It was a renegotiation of U.S. relations. USMCA. ”
“We have been able to work together on specifics, and I look forward to continuing to work with him over the next two months while I am in office,” Trudeau added.
