Justin Trudeau praised Joe Biden for rejoining the Paris climate agreement at their first bilateral meeting, saying: “American leadership has been greatly missed in recent years.”
The Canadian Prime Minister added: “And I have to say that while we were preparing for the joint implementation of the communication on this, it would be nice if the Americans did not take out all the references to climate change, but rather add it.”
The meeting – held virtually between the Roosevelt Chamber in the White House and Trudeau in his Ottawa office following the pandemic – was Biden’s first with a foreign counterpart since his tenure,
Biden returned Trudeau’s compliments, saying, “The United States has no closer friend, no closer friend, than Canada.”
After two hours of discussion, the two leaders came forward and said that they intend to work closely together to defeat the Covid-19 pandemic and combat climate change, with the aim of achieving a net release by 2050. reach.
Trudeau also thanked Biden for reiterating US support for the release of two Canadians, Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig. “People do not exchange chips,” Biden said. “We will work together until we are safe again.”
It was unclear whether Trudeau came up with the idea of allowing Canada, which is struggling to vaccinate its population, to buy vaccines at pharmaceutical giant Pfizer’s manufacturing facility in Michigan. Canada receives vaccines from a Pfizer plant in Belgium.
Trudeau raised the issue when the two leaders spoke by telephone last month, Biden’s first call to a foreign leader as president. But Biden’s ‘first priority’ remains ‘to ensure that every American is vaccinated,’ White House press secretary Jen Psaki said before the meeting.
Another concern for Trudeau is the ‘Buy American’ executive order that Biden signed during his first week in office. It is designed to encourage the federal government to spend more of the approximately $ 600 billion spent on procurement to advance U.S. factories and leasing.
Biden said he was creating a “Made in America” office as part of the pressure to evaluate contracts and make sure exemptions are only used in “very limited circumstances”, such as when there is overwhelming national security , humanitarian or emergency need exists the US. The issue is crucial for Canada, as the US accounts for about 75% of its exports.
“I do not expect them to make any commitments during the meeting today,” Psaki said on Tuesday when asked about the possibility of Canada receiving a waiver of the ‘Buy American’ order.
Spavor and Kovrig were detained in China following the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Huawei, Canada, after the US requested her extradition on charges that the Chinese telecommunications administration had committed wire and bank fraud and violated US sanctions against Iran. She denies the allegations.
China spoke out against Canada last week for joining the US and 56 other countries in endorsing a declaration rejecting state aid for arbitrary detention of foreign nationals for political purposes.
Canadian officials expect Trudeau to have a much more productive relationship with Biden than he did with Donald Trump. The Republican president, in a shocked state in 2018, took to Twitter after a meeting of the Group of Seven Industrialized Countries to accuse the prime minister of being “dishonest and weak” after Trudeau raised objections to Trump over tariffs on steel and increase aluminum from Canada. , Mexico and the European Union.