Trump pledges to do 'anything' he can to help Canada in its dispute with China

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau meets with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, D.C. on Thursday. Trudeau touted the merits of the recently renegotiated NAFTA and said he was moving forward on the ratification process in lockstep with the U.S. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

U.S. President Donald Trump said today that he'll do whatever he can to help Canada in its ongoing diplomatic dispute with China.

Trump made the remarks during a meet-and-greet in the Oval Office with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau today in advance of talks on ratifying the newly renegotiated North American Free Trade Agreement.

"Anything I can do to help Canada, I will be doing," Trump said.

Asked if he would bring up China's imprisonment of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor when he meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Trump said that, "at Justin's request, I will absolutely bring that up."

Xi and Trump are expected to meet late next week in Japan on the sidelines of the G20 summit.

Spavor, a businessman who worked in North Korea, and former diplomat Kovrig were picked up separately in December, shortly after Canada arrested Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver on an extradition request from the United States. She was later granted bail and is now awaiting court proceedings.

In March, China's Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission accused Kovrig of stealing state secrets passed on to him by Spavor.

Since Meng's arrest, China also has placed a number of trade hurdles in front of Canadian exporters — banning imports from two canola producers, tying up shipments of pork over paperwork issues, and putting unusual obstacles in the way of Canadian soybean and pea exporters.

Not ruling out more tariffs

Switching to trade, Trump refused today to rule out further tariffs on Canada and Mexico. The U.S. imposed tariffs on Canadian and Mexican steel (25 per cent) and aluminum (10 per cent) last June, citing national security concerns.

The U.S. said it was concerned in part about cheap foreign steel finding its way through Canada into the U.S. 

Canada took measures to prevent the transshipment of steel into the U.S. and struck a deal with Washington to monitor any potential surges in steel products that were unfairly subsidized abroad and then dumped in the U.S. via Canada. 

"We'll see," Trump said when asked if he would reimpose tariffs. "They have to do what they have to do. We understand that. We can't have tremendous shipments of certain products, we understand that very well.

"They've been lifted, as you know, and there won't be hopefully transshipping. If there's transshipping I'll call Justin and he'll take care of it and if he doesn't, I'll probably call him a second time and if he doesn't, then we'll have to talk, right."

"We'll be fine," Trudeau replied.

Ratifying USMCA

One of the main reasons for Trudeau's trip to Washington was to discuss the ratification of the new NAFTA, retitled by Trump as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which will require the support of Democrats to clear the U.S. House of Representatives.  

"(Ratification) is really subject to the Democrats, so let's see what happens," Trump said. "But I really believe that (Speaker) Nancy Pelosi in the House will approve it and I think the Senate will approve it rapidly."

Trump said the deal was good for all three countries and that he hopes Congress "can do what they have to do."

Trudeau touted the deal as good for workers in all three countries and said Canada was moving forward with the ratification process in lockstep with the U.S.

Raptors to the White House?

Asked if the newly crowned NBA champions, the Toronto Raptors, would receive the traditional invitation to the White House, Trump was non-committal.

"An interesting question. They played phenomenal basketball. I watched a little bit of it," he said. "They were really terrific. Congratulations, by the way. That was a great job by a great team, so we'll think about that."

Trump said he would discuss it but there were "a lot of other folks" coming to the White House.

According to Raptors head coach Nick Nurse, the team has been invited already to Parliament Hill to be celebrated for their achievement.

Touring Washington

Trudeau attended a working lunch with Trump today before meeting with House Speaker Pelosi to discuss moving forward on USMCA.

Before the meeting, Pelosi said she was looking forward to talking trade and business with Trudeau and joked that she had no desire to bring up the subject of sports.

Trudeau bet Pelosi that the Raptors would win. Today, she settled the bet by presenting Trudeau with California wine and a selection of California almonds, pistachios and walnuts.

"Congratulations, Mr. Prime Minister, to the Raptors. They're a great team, so great that they were able to win over a great championship team, the Golden State Warriors," she saide

Trudeau said he had lots to discuss with Pelosi, including "trade and good jobs for Canadians and Americans" and issues of global importance.

As a consolation prize, Trudeau offered Pelosi some Canadian treats — including candy from the Nova Scotia-based Peace By Chocolate. He made a point of telling the Speaker that the people who started the business were once Syrian refugees and now employ many Canadians.

Trudeau was scheduled to meet with U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell; that meeting was cancelled after McConnell and Pelosi were called into the situation room at the White House to discuss the growing crisis with Iran and the American surveillance drone the Iranians shot down last night.

Dealing with Iran

Trump and Trudeau said it was their intention to discuss the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's decision to shoot down the drone. The move sparked competing and unverifiable accounts over where the downing occurred and deepened a conflict between the U.S. and Iran. The Guard said the drone was over Iranian airspace, while the U.S. said it was over the international Strait of Hormuz.

"Iran made a big mistake. This drone was in international waters, clearly, we have it all documented, it's documented scientifically, not just words, and they made a very bad mistake," Trump said.

Trump later said he believed that it might have been a rogue commander who made an error by shooting the down the unarmed, unmanned drone. Asked how the United States would respond, Trump said, "Let's just see what happens ... It's all going to work out."

Canadian soldiers are in nearby Iraq as part of a NATO effort to train Iraqi military forces.

"Obviously, we're very concerned about the escalation by Iran recently," Trudeau said.

"We look forward to discussing with our closest ally their perspectives on this and how we can move forward as an international community."