Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Chrystia Freeland, responded to attacks on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau by President Donald Trump’s advisors.
Larry Kudlow and Peter Navarro, trade advisors to Trump, went on national television on Sunday to criticize the Canadian prime minister for “betraying” the U.S. president.
Freeland, speaking at a press conference on Sunday, said that Canada does not believe that ad hominem attacks are a particularly appropriate or useful way to conduct relations with other countries.
According to a report by CTV, she said that Canada is “very measured” and that the country’s officials “use fact-based arguments” to drive home a point.
Former prime minister Stephen Harper also shared his perspective on the trade spat between Canada and the U.S. Harper said that although he could understand the United States wanting better trade relations with countries like China and Mexico, he can’t “understand the obsession with trade relations with Canada.”
Top European Union official Donald Tusk also took a jab at the officials. Taking to Twitter, he said that there is a “special place in heaven” for Trudeau.
Tusk’s comments came shortly after President Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro said there was a “special place in hell” for leaders who betrayed Trump.
Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer said on Twitter on Sunday that the G7 meeting “shows that united support for free trade is at serious risk.”
Earlier today, I joined @JustinTrudeau, world leaders and the heads of international organizations at the #G7 to discuss the environmental challenge facing our oceans. #G7Charlevoix pic.twitter.com/zhtwKazCQI
— Chrystia Freeland (@cafreeland) June 9, 2018
On Sunday, after the summit, Trudeau held a press conference in which he spoke about American trade policies. Sharply criticizing Trump’s remarks on tariffs, Trudeau promised that Canada would answer with its own on July 1 unless the U.S. reversed course.
Prime Minister Trudeau also announced that all members of the G7 had signed a joint communique. On Saturday, en route to Singapore, President Trump tweeted that the United States will not endorse the communique.
The joint statement between the leaders of the U.S., France, Germany, the U.K., Japan, Italy, and Canada comes after President Trump refused to back down from his decision to impose international tariffs on goods, including steel and aluminum imports.
Kudlow, in an interview with CNN, argued that Trudeau’s press conference criticisms of Trump’s trade tariffs were inappropriate because of Trump’s upcoming meeting with Kim Jong Un, and because they represented a shift from the more cooperative work that had been done to form the communique from the seven nations.