(AFP) – US President Donald Trump held talks Friday with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum in Washington to discuss thorny differences over migration and trade. They “are speaking right now. Just the three of them,” Carney’s spokeswoman Audrey Champoux told AFP in a text message after the leaders attended the draw for the 2026 World Cup that will be co-hosted by the three nations. Friday’s talks were the first between Trump and Sheinbaum.
Carney has visited the White House twice since Trump’s return to power, but it will be his first encounter with Trump — except a brief meeting at a summit in South Korea — since the US leader suspended trade talks in a bizarre row over an anti-tariff ad. Trump has slapped steep tariffs on exports from Canada and Mexico that do not fall under the three-way USMCA trade agreement that Washington is seeking to renegotiate next year.
He has also threatened further punishment if they fail to curb cross-border migration and drug trafficking — and irked Sheinbaum by saying he would be “OK” with air strikes on Mexico to tackle traffickers. She has vowed the strikes will never happen. Canada also was outraged by Trump’s calls earlier this year for it to become the 51st US state.
Carney drew criticism at recent G20 meetings in South Africa when, asked by a reporter when he last spoke to Trump, answered, “Who cares?” The three countries launched their joint World Cup bid in 2017 during Trump’s first term in the White House. Trump said Friday that the United States had worked closely with Mexico and Canada over the tournament, adding “the coordination and friendship and relationship has been outstanding.”
© 2024 AFP
