Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he directly raised concerns about a proposed electric-vehicle tax credit, Buy American rhetoric and the cross-border Line 5 oil pipeline with U.S. President Joe Biden.
Trudeau made the remarks on Thursday night following a trilateral summit with the American leader and his Mexican counterpart, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, which the prime minister described as “extremely effective.”
Biden offered no hints earlier Thursday that he was willing to budge on the controversial $12,500 tax credit for American-made electric vehicles, a proposed measure the Canadian industry has described as a potential body blow.
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Trudeau said he stressed Canada’s concerns about the tax credit throughout the past two days of meetings with the Biden administration in Washington, D.C., highlighting the impact it would have on Canadian jobs and its auto industry.
Asked whether he was disappointed that no solution was reached, Trudeau said in any relationship as deep as that of Canada and the U.S., there are going to be challenges. He said he will continue to engage with the administration in constructive ways.
He says the Americans are “very aware” of Canada’s concerns and the threats the proposed tax credit poses to decades of integrated auto making that was enshrined in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the free-trade agreement that replaced NAFTA.
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