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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has downplayed US President-elect Donald Trump’s tariff threat to Canada, dubbing it as a mere “distraction". Trump had earlier vowed to impose a 25 per cent tariff on all imports from Canada alleging Ottawa’s lax immigration policy. Earlier this week, the GOP leader even suggested using “economic force” to acquire Canada.
In a conversation with US broadcaster CNN, Trudeau responded by labeling Trump as a “skilful negotiator.”
“What I think is happening in this is President Trump, who is a very skilful negotiator, is getting people to be somewhat distracted by that conversation,” Trudeau said.
“Oil and gas and electricity and steel and aluminium and lumber and concrete and everything the American consumers buy from Canada [are] suddenly going to get a lot more expensive if he moves forward on these tariffs,” the outgoing Canadian PM added.
Also read: How about we buy Alaska...?: Canadian lawmaker counters Trump's 51st state offer
Earlier, Trudeau had rubbished Trump’s Canada annexation idea, saying there was not “a snowball’s chance in hell” that it would materialise.
He also reiterated that Ottawa would take countermeasures if Trump walks the tariff talk. However, the embattled leader added that he would avoid going down that path “because it drives up prices for Canadians and it harms our closest trading partner.”
Trudeau offers aid for Los Angeles wildfires
The Canadian PM also weighed in on raging wildfires in Los Angeles, saying he had been in touch with California Governor Gavin Newsom and had offered him aid to battle them.
Trudeau stressed that his country offered California state officials “a tremendous amount of equipment that they’re already accepting.”
About 180,000 people have been evacuated across Los Angeles County where apocalyptic scenes have emerged over the past few days.
“Unfortunately, over the past years, we’ve seen it get far worse, and we’ve seen wildfires increasingly encroaching on urban areas, and that’s a … fire where we have to train up more local municipal firefighters to deal with wildfires in a way that we never had before,” the Canadian PM said.
(With inputs from agencies)