Canada Foreign Affairs Minister Freeland postpones UNGA speech, back in Canada
Ottawa, Sept 29 (IBNS): Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland came back to Canada after postponing her marquee speech at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) untill Monday, media reports said.
The reason for the postponement has not been revealed.
Freeland's office told media that she has traded her time slot on the UN rostrum.
She is likely to concentrate on the North American Free Trade Agreeement (NAFTA), whose text of the existing US-Mexico deal will be published on Sunday.
US President Donald Trump threatened Canada of imposing auto-tariffs, Canadian Ambassador has said the tariffs would change the relationship between the two countries, media reports said.
At a press conference in New York, Canada's Ambassador to the US, David MacNaughton, was quoted as saying by CTV News that, "An imposition of tariffs on autos would fundamentally change the relationship between Canada and the United States for a long time to come.”
Trump has recently said he turned down a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
Trump, while speaking at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), said the US is not "getting along" with Canada.
The US President's comment came at a time the NAFTA negotiations are going on.
Trump has been quoted by BBC, "I must be honest with you, we're not getting along at all with their negotiators."
The President said he turned down the meeting with Trudeau as he did not like Canada's dairy tariffs.
He has once again threatened Canada of imposing taxes on its auto industry.
"[Mr Trudeau's] tariffs are too high and he doesn't seem to want to move and I told him forget about it. And frankly we're thinking about just taxing cars coming in from Canada," the US President has been quoted by BBC.
Not ruling out a possible of a deal involving the US, Canada and Mexico, Trump cleared he is not at all ready to make any compromise.
In early September, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had cleared that the Liberals won't compromise on culture and dispute resolution during the talks over NAFTA.
Trudeau had said Canada won't sign a new deal if it does not include a dispute resolution mechanism and exemptions from cultural industries.
NAFTA is an agreement which came into force from January 1994 by Canada, Mexico and United States creating a trilateral trade bloc in North America.
Trump had earlier also alleged that the US faced severe losses in the trade pact with Canada and Mexico.
Support Our Journalism
We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism
IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.