Canada PM Trudeau faces heat from US President Trump over 'trade deficit'
Ottawa, Dec 9 (IBNS): Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is facing heat from US President Donald Trump, who acclaimed the former saying "a nice guy" but also has hit out at his counterpart over their differences on "trade deficit" discussions, media reports said.
Referring to Trudeau, Trump on Thursday said:"I like the prime minister very much. Prime Minister Trudeau. Nice guy. Good guy. No, I like him. But we had a meeting... He said, 'No, no, you have a trade surplus.' I said, 'No we don't.' He said, 'No, no you have a trade surplus."
"(Trudeau) said, 'I'm telling you that Canada has a deficit with the United States.' I told my people — in front of a lot of people — I said, 'Go out and check" the Canada PM added.
Giving Trudeau a chance to be tensed, Trump repeated his earlier promise of either cancelling or negotiating North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
Canada is presently negotiating with the US regarding the NAFTA, an agreement which came into force from January 1994 by Canada, Mexico and United States creating a trilateral trade bloc in North America.
For almost two years, US President Trump criticised the agreement and also hinted to take some serious steps being in the administration or at least send some ultimatums.
Both Canada and the US differ in the climate change.
The US has already announced their withdrawal from the Paris Climate and the process of coming out from it is underway.
On the other hand, Canada wants a new NAFTA with a reference to the global climate issues and make necessary steps to tackle them.
In the negotiations, Canada is working for a better labour and environmental provisions.
Both Canada and the US are in favour of making an environment agreement in the new NAFTA instead of designing a separate deal.
The two nations also want to make certain provisions to prevent NAFTA nations from violating the rules for the sake of drawing investments.
Amid the ongoing negotiations in the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, in the week of November, said the country can't agree to extreme proposals put forward by the US, media reports said.
After the fifth round of talk in Mexico city, Freeland told media: "There are some areas where some extreme proposals have been put forward, and these are proposals that we simply cannot agree to."
Freeland even said certain proposals could become detrimental to the Canadian auto-industry.
When asked about whether the country should look forward to have a future without NAFTA, Freeland told media, "..hope for the best and prepare for the worst and Canada is prepared for every eventuality".
(Reporting by Suman Das)
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