A new report claims that White House aides contacted Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s staff in April and urged them to have Trudeau call the president to convince him not to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Trudeau called Donald Trump just hours before a scheduled call between the two of them and Mexican President Peña Nieto, according to what “Canadian government sources” told the Canadian newspaper National Post. The White House announced that night that after the call with Trump, Trudeau and Nieto that the U.S. would renegotiate NAFTA rather than leaving the trade agreement altogether.
(Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
“President Trump agreed not to terminate NAFTA at this time and the leaders agreed to proceed swiftly, according to their required internal procedures, to enable the renegotiation of the NAFTA deal to the benefit of all three countries,” a readout provided by the White House of the call with the three leaders said.
“President Trump said, ‘It is my privilege to bring NAFTA up to date through renegotiation. It is an honor to deal with both President Peña Nieto and Prime Minister Trudeau, and I believe that the end result will make all three countries stronger and better.'”
The National Post claims that was because Trudeau intervened.
“You never know how much of it is theatre, but it didn’t feel that way,” a source told the Post. “Maybe they’re just learning how to be a government. At least they were open to the conversation, and that stopped them doing something rash and destructive.”
Trump later said this regarding his decision: “I like both these gentlemen very much. I respect their countries very much. The relationship is very special. And I said, I will hold on the termination — let’s see if we can make it a fair deal.”
The White House did not immediately respond to request for comment.