TORONTO (news agencies) — President-elect Donald Trump was joking when he suggested Canada become the 51st U.S. state during a dinner with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, a Canadian minister who attended their recent dinner said Tuesday.
Fox News reported that Trump made the comment in response to Trudeau raising concerns that Trump’s threatened tariffs on Canada would damage Canada’s economy.
LeBlanc, who attended the Friday dinner at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, said Trump’s comments were in jest.
“The president was telling jokes. The president was teasing us. It was, of course, on that issue, in no way a serious comment,” LeBlanc told reporters in Ottawa.
LeBlanc described it as a three-hour social evening at the president’s residence in Florida on a long weekend of American Thanksgiving. “The conversation was going to be light-hearted,” he said.
He called the relations warm and cordial and said the fact that “the president is able to joke like that for us” indicates good relations.
The minister said there is no transcript.
“It wasn’t a meeting in a boardroom with 10 bureaucrats keeping notes,” he said. “It was a social evening and there were moments where it was entertaining and funny, and there were moments where we were able to do good work for Canada.”
Earlier last week, the Republican president-elect threatened to impose a 25% tax on all products entering the U.S. from Canada and Mexico unless they stem the flow of migrants and drugs.
Trudeau requested the meeting in a bid to avoid the tariffs by convincing Trump that the northern border is nothing like the U.S. southern border with Mexico.
Kirsten Hillman, Canada’s ambassador to Washington, told media that Trudeau was successful in getting Trump and key Cabinet nominees to understand that there is no comparison between the Canada-U.S. border and Mexico-U.S. border.
Hillman, who sat at an adjacent table to Trudeau and Trump, said Canada is ready to make new investments in border security and there are plans for more helicopters, drones and law enforcement officers.
At the dinner, Hillman said America’s trade deficit with Canada was also raised. Hillman said the U.S. had a $75 billion trade deficit with Canada last year but noted a third of what Canada sells into the U.S. is energy exports and prices have been high.
“Trade balances are something that he focuses so it’s important to engage in that conversation but to put it into context,” Hillman told the news agencies. “We are one-tenth the size of the United States so a balanced trade deal would mean per capita we are buying 10 times more from the U.S. than they are buying from us. If that’s his metric we will certainly engage on that.”
Hillman said Canada sold $170 billion worth of energy products last year to the U.S. About 60% of U.S. crude oil imports are from Canada, and 85% of U.S. electricity imports as well
Canada is also the largest foreign supplier of steel, aluminum and uranium to the U.S. and has 34 critical minerals and metals that the Pentagon is eager for and investing for national security.
Canada is the top export destination for 36 U.S. states. Nearly $3.6 billion Canadian (US$2.7 billion) worth of goods and services cross the border each day. Canada is one of the most trade-dependent countries in the world, and 77% of Canada’s exports go to the U.S.
During Trump’s first term, his move to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement or NAFTA, and reports that he was considering a 25% tariff on the auto sector were considered an existential threat in Canada.
Trudeau will have a meeting with all opposition leaders on Wednesday to discuss U.S.-Canada relations.
His government successfully employed a “Team Canada” approach during Trump’s first term in office when the free trade deal between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico was renegotiated. But Trudeau’s minority government is in a much weaker position politically now and faces an election within a year.
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