US president Trump says PM Trudeau’s comments will cost Canada ‘a lot money’

Canada’s PM Justin Trudeau had told reporters that Trump’s decision to invoke national security to justify US tariffs on steel and aluminum imports was “kind of insulting” to Canadian veterans who had stood by their US allies.

world Updated: Jun 12, 2018 15:35 IST

Canada's prime minister Justin Trudeau (right) meets with US President Donald Trump during the G7 Summit in the Charlevoix town of La Malbaie, Quebec, Canada, June 8, 2018. (Reuters File )

US President Donald Trump said the recent G7 spat-dominated meeting in Canada was “good”, but in the same breath warned the host country would pay for the comments of its prime minister.

“I had a very good meeting with the G7,” Trump said, rejecting suggestions the summit was a failure. But he also said that critical comments from Justin Trudeau would cost Canada “a lot of money”.

An escalating clash over trade between Washington and some of its closest global partners had loomed over Trump’s historic summit meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Tuesday.

At a news conference, Trump recounted his recent tough exchanges with Trudeau, and said the Canadian leader must not have realized that Trump had televisions on Air Force One, allowing him to monitor Trudeau’s news conference at the end of the G-7 summit.

The US president had left a weekend Group of Seven summit in Canada early, announcing he was backing out of a joint communique and torpedoing what appeared to be a fragile consensus on the trade dispute between Washington and its main allies.

Trump, who had criticised Trudeau after the G7 meeting in Canada on the weekend, said the United States had a big trade deficit with Canada, and “a little balance” was needed.