Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada is ready to stand up for Canadian jobs and interests if president-elect Joe Biden seeks to cut international trade.
Canada got a lot of practice fighting tariffs and renegotiating trade agreements under President Donald Trump's administration.
Trudeau says in an Ottawa news conference today that U.S. barriers to Canadian imports hurt Canadian businesses and workers but they hurt Americans, too.
Trudeau says he will keep working with the Trump administration until Biden takes over in January, including on efforts to get Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor released from Chinese detention.
We talked about those specific challenges today, as well as trade, energy, NATO, anti-Black racism, and China’s arbitrary detention of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor. On these and other issues, President-elect @JoeBiden and I agreed to keep in touch and work closely together.
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) November 9, 2020
Trudeau particularly congratulated Biden's running mate Kamala Harris, who is to become vice-president in January.
He says seeing a Black and South Asian American woman elected to the vice-presidency is inspiring, and a reminder that everyone has a place in the corridors of power.