Juno News - July 11, 2020


Trudeau refuses to attend formal signing of USMCA


Episode Stats


Length

5 minutes

Words per minute

117.60888

Word count

604

Sentence count

34


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Justin Trudeau was invited to a trilateral trade summit with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but he declined the President's invitation citing scheduling conflicts. What was so important that he couldn't fly two hours to Washington to attend a trade summit when invited by the President of the United States?

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
00:00:00.000 On Wednesday there was a lavish ceremony laid out in the Rose Garden of the White
00:00:10.200 House. The occasion was for a formal signing of the NAFTA replacement deal
00:00:16.020 the USMCA. The White House said last week that President Donald Trump envisioned a
00:00:23.340 trilateral summit in Washington at the White House to inaugurate the new trade
00:00:30.100 pact he invited Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador known as AMLO and
00:00:36.420 Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to attend. There was to be a formal signing
00:00:43.060 in the Rose Garden along with remarks from each leader and talks about trade
00:00:49.020 issues followed by a formal dinner hosted by the President of the United States.
00:00:57.020 The USMCA is the world's biggest trade deal. Canada is largest trading partner of
00:01:04.020 the United States. Equally Canada and the US are intrinsically tied together with
00:01:09.840 things like NORAD in protecting North America. Quite possibly the world's most
00:01:15.000 important alliance and certainly the most important relationship to Canada. Yet
00:01:20.880 on Monday the Prime Minister declined the President's invitation citing scheduling
00:01:27.100 conflicts. According to the Prime Minister's itinerary for Wednesday July the
00:01:32.220 8th he had private meetings. He gave a speech to the International Labour
00:01:37.860 Organization Virtual Global Summit at 11 a.m. and supposedly spent the rest of the
00:01:44.000 day in Parliament. He didn't take questions at least that I could see if he
00:01:51.320 was there even. Finance Minister Bill Morneau gave his financial announcement
00:01:55.820 which included a mind-boggling deficit of 352 billion dollars but nothing from the
00:02:02.660 Prime Minister. Considering he'd been hiding out in Rideau Cottage for over three
00:02:08.540 months eschewing cabinet meetings and Parliament one can't see anything in the
00:02:14.300 excuses coming from the PMO which would justify missing the USMCA summit. So what
00:02:23.240 was so important that he couldn't fly two hours to Washington to attend a trade
00:02:28.940 summit when invited by the President of the United States? Claims that going would
00:02:35.660 breach the two-week quarantine rule for travelers from the United States are
00:02:41.300 specious at best. By attending he would be around a very limited number of people
00:02:47.240 and no one gets near the President without being tested first and being
00:02:53.000 confirmed negative. He could have gone, waved the flag, taken part in trade
00:02:58.580 discussions, attended the formal dinner and still have been at home to sleep in his
00:03:03.540 own bed. An anonymous PMO staffer tried to offer the spin that the PM was
00:03:11.100 concerned about proposed tariffs on steel and aluminum. Well isn't that a
00:03:17.760 reason to go and iron out any disputes? Trump was gracious in his remarks saying
00:03:23.940 quote we will have a separate day with Canada and they will come down at the
00:03:29.400 appropriate moment unquote. AMLO too was gracious in noting Trudeau's absence
00:03:35.940 saying quote the trade deal will benefit all three countries and their people
00:03:40.560 unquote. All of the US news coverage noted Canada's absence from the signing
00:03:47.460 ceremony essentially without explanation. It was to say the least a diplomatic
00:03:56.100 faux pas that was totally unnecessary. It certainly diminished Canada's standing
00:04:01.980 with the US president or at least Trudeau's. He did nothing to cement relations
00:04:07.620 with Mexico's new president. These are our largest trading partners. Trudeau may
00:04:14.340 think he lives in a bubble and he won't be criticized for whatever he does or
00:04:19.440 doesn't do. But that is a fallacy notwithstanding the mainstream media who
00:04:24.900 carry his water. Canadians know what's important and this trade summit was
00:04:31.800 important. Trudeau deliberately missing it was malfeasance from a prime minister.
00:04:37.560 And all of this was before the WE scandal even broke. For True North, I'm Leo Knight.
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