By Jacob Pramuk - CNBC
U.S President Donald Trump rejected a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau this week as the countries struggle to reach a new trade deal, he said Wednesday.
The Trump administration is scrambling to meet a self-imposed Oct. 1 deadline to strike a new North American trade agreement among the U.S., Mexico and Canada. Mexico has already signed on to a deal. But so far, the U.S. and its northern neighbor have not managed to come to terms.
"His tariffs are too high, and he doesn't seem to want to move and I've told him forget about it, and frankly, we're thinking about just taxing cars coming in from Canada," Trump told reporters in explaining why he did not want to meet one-on-one with Trudeau at the United Nations General Assembly. "That's the mother lode. That's the big one."
"We're very unhappy with the negotiations and the negotiating style of Canada. We don't like their representative [Chrystia Freeland] very much," Trump added during a news conference.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer aims to issue the text of a trade deal with only the U.S. and Mexico as early as Friday, two sources told CNBC. The framework would allow Canada to join the agreement at a later date, one source said.
