US President Donald Trump sought to patch up any lingering bitterness with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Monday, calling him a "good man" after they agreed on a new trade accord.
The two leaders exchanged a late night phone call Sunday after reaching the new US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, which replaces the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement.
"There was a lot of tension between he and I... It's all worked out. You know when it ended? About 12 last night," Trump said at a White House news conference.
"He's a good man and he loves the people of Canada."
Not too long ago, Trump was flinging insults at Trudeau over Twitter, taunting him as "very dishonest & weak" and "meek and mild" in June as he left a G7 summit in Canada that the prime minister had hosted.
Those remarks set the stage for a bitter struggle over trade, with Trump threatening to drop Canada from the regional trade pact altogether if it didn't yield to key US demands.
In the end, Trudeau made a concession on Trump's biggest demand, agreeing to ease barriers to entry in Canada's protected dairy market.
"We could have done it a different way and it would be nasty and not nice," Trump said. "It got a little bit testy in the last couple of months, but that was over this agreement."
In Ottawa, Trudeau hailed the agreement as "profoundly beneficial for our economy, for Canadian families and for the middle class."
But he acknowledged that the NAFTA dispute "has been a challenge in conversations with the president, with the administration over these past 13 months."
"But, there is also no question that now that we have moved forward on a USMCA, we will continue to work on things that benefit our workers, benefit our citizens and take on the world together as a North American market," he said.
US President Donald Trump sought to patch up any lingering bitterness with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Monday, calling him a “good man” after they agreed on a new trade accord.
The two leaders exchanged a late night phone call Sunday after reaching the new US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, which replaces the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement.
“There was a lot of tension between he and I… It’s all worked out. You know when it ended? About 12 last night,” Trump said at a White House news conference.
“He’s a good man and he loves the people of Canada.”
Not too long ago, Trump was flinging insults at Trudeau over Twitter, taunting him as “very dishonest & weak” and “meek and mild” in June as he left a G7 summit in Canada that the prime minister had hosted.
Those remarks set the stage for a bitter struggle over trade, with Trump threatening to drop Canada from the regional trade pact altogether if it didn’t yield to key US demands.
In the end, Trudeau made a concession on Trump’s biggest demand, agreeing to ease barriers to entry in Canada’s protected dairy market.
“We could have done it a different way and it would be nasty and not nice,” Trump said. “It got a little bit testy in the last couple of months, but that was over this agreement.”
In Ottawa, Trudeau hailed the agreement as “profoundly beneficial for our economy, for Canadian families and for the middle class.”
But he acknowledged that the NAFTA dispute “has been a challenge in conversations with the president, with the administration over these past 13 months.”
“But, there is also no question that now that we have moved forward on a USMCA, we will continue to work on things that benefit our workers, benefit our citizens and take on the world together as a North American market,” he said.
