United States President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday expressed their desire to improve bilateral ties between the countries and work together to build bridges and facilitate trade. However, both the leaders also made clear their differences on immigration and accepting refugees into their countries.
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This was the first time the leaders met each other ever since Trump formally assumed presidency on January 20. They also addressed a press conference at the White House on Monday, but did not provide much details on what cooperation they have decided between the two countries in the coming months, according to EFE news.
Trump, although, mentioned his promise to negotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a trade alliance between US, Canada and Mexico which has been in place for more than 20 years. The US President said that America's trade with Canada is "outstanding" and that they are "going to work together to make it even better."
"We have a very outstanding trade relationship with Canada. We'll be tweaking it. We'll be doing certain things that are going to benefit both of our countries. It's a much less severe situation than what's taking place on the southern border," Trump was quoted as saying during the conference by EFE news.
Trump also responded to a question linked to NAFTA and Mexico and said that "on the southern border, for many, many years, the transaction was not fair to the United States."
"We're going to work with Mexico, we're going to make it a fair deal for both parties," Trump said while stressing that "we're going to get that worked out. We're going to make it fair, but ... so that everybody is happy."
Trudeau, during the press conference, emphasised on the importance of NAFTA and how millions of people on both sides of the country rely on the trade alliance by stating "millions of good, middle-class jobs on both sides of the border depend on this crucial partnership."
Trudeau, however, expressed concerns over Trump's probable negotiation of the trade deal, and said that it is a "real concern for many Canadians because we know that our economy is very dependent on our bonds, our relationship with the United States."
Trudeau also added that he is not going to "lecture" Trump on immigration policies and said that Canada will however "continue to pursue our policies of openness towards immigration, refugees, without compromising security." The Canadian PM said that his country has taken more than 40,000 Syrian refugees without compromising its national security.
