Premiers to meet with Trudeau Wednesday about trade and tariffs, Ford says

By Allison Jones, The Canadian Press on December 10, 2024.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford says the country's premiers are meeting virtually Wednesday with the prime minister to discuss the threat of tariffs from the United States. Ford attends Question Period at the Ontario legislature in Toronto, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

TORONTO – Ontario Premier Doug Ford says the country’s premiers are meeting virtually Wednesday with the prime minister to discuss the threat of U.S. tariffs on Canadian imports.

It comes two weeks after the premiers’ last meeting with Justin Trudeau, where they discussed how to respond to U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s warning that he will impose a 25 per cent tariff on goods from Canada and Mexico when he takes office next month.

Ford says the federal government promised to present a plan to the premiers for their approach to negotiations with Trump and his officials.

Ford says he hopes the plan will include strengthening border security, an issue Trump highlighted in his initial tariff threat, and meeting a NATO commitment of spending two per cent of GDP on defence.

Trudeau recently flew to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida to dine with the president-elect and some of his cabinet nominees for an informal discussion on trade and border security.

News of the first ministers’ meeting comes the same day as Trump tauntingly took to social media to say it was a pleasure to dine with “Governor Justin Trudeau of the Great State of Canada,” a nod to a joke he made at the dinner that he might make Canada the 51st U.S. state.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 10, 2024.