Canadian official: Trudeau told Trump not to let ‘irritants’ harm relationship

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told President Trump not to “let a couple of irritants get in the way” of their strong relationship as Trump threatened to withdraw from NAFTA last week, a top Canadian official said Sunday. 

“And what I think the prime minister said is, he really pointed out to the president, we have a great relationship, let’s not let a couple of irritants get in the way,” Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s foreign minister, told “Fareed Zakaria GPS” about the leaders’ call.  

Freeland said the Canadian leader reminded Trump about their “economic relationship,” adding that the U.S. sells nearly twice as many products to Canada than it does China.

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“I think what the prime minister said is, you know, he really pointed out the extent to which the Canada-U.S. economic relationship is one of the best economic relationships in the world,” she said. “It’s a real win-win relationship. What many Americans don’t always fully appreciate is, Canada is the single biggest customer of the United States.”

Freeland said she noticed how Trudeau and Trump “really got along” at their first U.S.-Canada bilateral meeting at the White House in February. 

Freeland praised Trump for deciding to renegotiate NAFTA rather than pulling out of the cross-border trade agreement and stressed that Canada is ready to come to the “NAFTA negotiating table at any time.” 

“I was glad to see the president saying that he believes we can get a great deal. I believe that, too. And we’re ready to start talking,” she added.

Trump said last week he won’t withdraw from the agreement “at this time.”

“I decided rather than terminating NAFTA, which would be a pretty big, you know, shock to the system, we will renegotiate,” Trump said last Thursday.

Trump pledged on the campaign trail to either renegotiate or withdraw from NAFTA entirely.