Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada went to Florida on Friday night to see President-elect Donald J. Trump at Mar-a-Lago, two officials with direct knowledge of the visit said, after a threat by Trump to impose across-the-board tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico on Day 1.

The visit makes Trudeau the first head of government from the Group of 7, a key forum of global coordination consisting of the world’s wealthiest democracies, to visit the President-elect.

Trudeau and Trump dined together on Friday evening, one official said, along with a delegation of senior Trump allies poised for top trade and security positions in his new administration.

Trudeau was accompanied on his visit by Dominic LeBlanc, Canada’s minister of public safety. The Canadian Prime Minister was staying in the area overnight, but not at Mar-a-Lago.

The Trump transition team did not respond to requests for comment, and there was no information released about Trump’s schedule on Friday. Trudeau, on returning to his hotel after spending about three hours at Mar-a-Lago, did not respond to questions about what was discussed over dinner.

Trudeau has been scrambling to formulate a plan to respond to the threat made this week by Trump to impose a 25 per cent tariff unless Mexico and Canada take action to curb the arrival of undocumented migrants and drugs across their borders into the US.

Trump said he would sign such a measure on his first day in office, a move that could potentially cripple trade across the continent.

The threat was also seen as an opening salvo in what would most likely be a long renegotiation of the trade agreement among the three North American nations known as the USMCA — US, Mexico, Canada trade agreement, the successor to the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Trudeau has tried to project calm and confidence, saying that he believed that Trump would see that tariffs would harm both countries, which are each other’s biggest trading partners. About 80 per cent of Canada’s oil and 40 per cent of its gas are exported to the US.

New York Times News Service