Top Canadian officials to meet with Trump team on tariffs

Key members of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's cabinet have travelled to Florida for talks with representatives of US President-elect Donald Trump as Ottawa works to avert a potentially devastating trade war.

Newly appointed Finance Minister Dominic Leblanc and Foreign Minister Melanie Joly flew to Palm Beach, Florida, on Thursday "to meet with officials from the incoming Trump administration," Leblanc spokesman Jean-Sebastien Comeau said in a statement sent to the AFP news agency.

The meetings set for Friday will "focus on Canada's efforts to combat fentanyl trafficking and illegal migration," the statement said.

The ministers will brief Trump's team on Canada's new $694-million border security plan, which was devised in response to the tariff threat.

The meeting will also address "the negative impacts that the imposition of 25 percent tariffs on Canadian goods would have on both Canada and the United States," the statement added.

The statement did not mention who the Canadian officials would specifically be meeting with.

Trump has threatened to impose sweeping tariffs if Canada does not stem what he calls a flow of migrants and drugs in the United States — even though far fewer of each cross into the US from Canada than from Mexico, which Trump has also threatened.

About 60 percent of US crude oil imports and 85 percent of US electricity imports are from Canada.

Political crisis

Trudeau's envoys headed to Florida as his government confronts an escalating crisis. Leblanc was named finance minister earlier this month after the surprise resignation of Chrystia Freeland, who was also deputy prime minister.

In a scathing resignation letter, Freeland accused Trudeau of focusing on shortsighted handouts to voters instead of preparing Canada's finances to confront Trump's possible tariffs.

With his Liberal government trailing badly in polls to the Conservatives, some of Trudeau's former allies in parliament have urged him to resign.

Canadian media have named both Joly and Leblanc as potential contenders to lead the Liberal Party should Trudeau go.