White House officials reportedly called Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last month to urge him to persuade President Donald Trump not to shred the North American Free Trade Agreement.
The maneuver worked: Trump later abandoned his threat to pull out of NAFTA unilaterally, citing the arguments made by Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto as pivotal, Canada's National Post reported Monday.
A debate was underway within the White House about how aggressively to move on the reshaping of NAFTA, Politico reported April 26, with hardliners pushing Trump to withdraw unilaterally before his 100th day in office.
The National Post, citing unnamed government sources, reported White House advisers pushing a more cautious approach then called Ottawa to ask for Trudeau's help.
"You never know how much of it is theatre, but it didn't feel that way," one unnamed diplomatic source told the outlet. "Maybe they're just learning how to be a government. At least they were open to the conversation, and that stopped them doing something rash and destructive."
A readout of the call issued by the White House deals with both the Trump-Trudeau and Trump-Nieto conversations, saying "both conversations were pleasant and productive" and "the leaders agreed to proceed swiftly, according to their required internal procedures, to enable the renegotiation of the NAFTA deal to the benefit of all three countries," the National Post reported.
Trudeau's office readout was shorter, the National Post reported.
"The Prime Minister spoke this evening with President Trump of the United States," it said. "The two leaders continued their dialogue on Canada-U.S. trade relations, with the Prime Minister reinforcing the importance of stability and job growth in our trade relations."
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.