Canada’s ambassador to the United States said Sunday that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has succeeded in getting President-elect Donald Trump and key Cabinet nominees to understand that it is unfair to put Canada on par with Mexico over the flow of drugs and migrants to the United States.
Kirsten Hillman, Canada’s ambassador to Washington, said in an interview with the Associated Press that Trudeau dinner with Trump on Friday was a very important step in trying to get Trump to step down threatened tariffson all products of the main American trading partner.
Hillman was at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida and sat at a table next to Trudeau and Trump.
Trump threatened to impose tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico unless they stopped what he called the flow of drugs and migrants across its borders. He said in a social media post last Monday that he would impose a 25 percent tax on all products entry into the USA from Canada and Mexico as one of his first executive orders.
Hillman said Trudeau asked to see Trump in person in a phone call on Monday and that Trump invited him to dinner on Friday.
At the dinner, Hillman said Trump was told there was no comparison between the Canada-US border and the Mexico-US border.
“The message that our border is so different from the Mexican border is really getting across,” Hillman said.
Hillman said much of Friday night’s dinner focused on Trump’s border concerns. The ambassador said Trudeau’s priority was to point out the extent of the differences.
Hillman said there isn’t really a comparison, noting that there isn’t really any trafficking of fentanyl from Canada into the United States. She said there are seizures, but authorities say they are seizures for personal use, not criminal trafficking. She said 99.8% of the fentanyl seized by US authorities in the US comes from Mexico.
“Also looking at individuals, illegal individuals crossing illegally, Canada was less than one percent last year, 0.6 percent of the total interceptions from Canada,” Hillman said.
US customs officials seized 43 pounds of fentanyl at the Canadian border last fiscal year, compared to 21,100 pounds at the Mexican border. On immigration, the U.S. Border Patrol made 56,530 arrests at the Mexican border in October alone and 23,721 arrests at the Canadian border between October 2023 and September 2024 — and Hillman said the number of migrants has been declining since the summer.
“Facts are hard to deny,” Hillman said.
But Hillman said Canada is ready to make new investments in border security and there are plans for more helicopters, drones and law enforcement officers.
She also mentioned an agreement between Canada and the United States that allows migrants caught illegally crossing into the United States to be returned to Canada. She said it was talked about. She said Mexico and the US do not have a similar agreement.
At the three-hour dinner, Hillman said that America’s trade deficit with Canada had also increased. Hillman said the U.S. had a $75 billion trade deficit with Canada last year, but noted that a third of what Canada sells to the U.S. is energy exports, and prices have been high.
“Trade balances are something he focuses on so it’s important to engage in that conversation but put it in context,” Hillman said.
“We are one-tenth the size of the United States, so a balanced trade agreement would mean that per capita we buy 10 times more from the US than they buy from us. If that’s his metric, we’ll certainly be looking at it.”
Trump and Trudeau were joined at the dinner by Howard Lutnick, Trump’s nominee for commerce secretary, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Trump’s pick to lead the Interior Department, Mike Waltz, Trump’s pick for his national security adviser, and the wives of the three men.
David was also at the dinner McCormickthe just-elected US senator from Pennsylvania, and his wife, Dina Powell, a former deputy national security adviser under Trump, as well as Canada’s public safety minister Dominic LeBlanc, whose responsibilities include border security, and Katie Telford, Trudeau’s chief of staff.
Hillman said Canadian and future Trump administration officials will work on Trump’s concerns in the coming weeks. Trump called say “productive” in a social media post on Sunday, but signaled he was not backing down on his tariff pledge.
Hillman said that Trump and Trudeau “get along well” and that the dinner was also an opportunity to socialize. She said Trump used his iPad to play music and said Trump told Trudeau he was a big fan of Canadian singer Celine Dion.
“I don’t think it could have been better to be honest. Okay, I’ll take it back, I’ll change it. If he had clearly said there would be no tariffs, that would have been better, but there was no realistic expectation of that,” Hillman said.
Canada is the main export destination for 36 US states. Almost C$3.6 billion (US$2.7 billion) worth of goods and services cross the border every day.
About 60% of US crude oil imports are from Canada, and 85% of US electricity imports are from Canada.
Canada is also the largest foreign supplier of steel, aluminum and uranium to the US and has 34 critical minerals and metals that the Pentagon covets and invests in for national security.
Canada is one of the world’s most trade-dependent countries, with 77% of Canadian exports going to the US
