An adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump says Canada will be in a good position should there be a renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Stephen Schwarzman, who leads the President's Strategic and Policy Forum, is in Calgary to take part in meetings with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his federal cabinet.
Schwarzman says he met privately with Trudeau as well as with cabinet ministers, all of whom have gathered for a two-day retreat where the challenges posed by a Trump presidency are expected to dominate the agenda.
He says Americans hold an unusually positive view of Canada and the two countries have been great partners for as long as anybody can remember.
Trump has famously promised a new trade relationship with the world focusing on American interests and made good on one part of that promise today by signing an order killing the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.
David MacNaughton, Canada's ambassador to the United States, says he doesn't think Trump has Canada in his sights and that bilateral agreements outside of NAFTA are a possibility.
WHO IS PART OF THE TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP?
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The TPP is a free trade agreement between Canada, USA, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Japan, Vietnam, Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand; a group of counrties with a combined GDP of $38.5 trillion -- roughly 40% of the global GDP. The TPP would eliminate tariffs between these nations. Canada joined the negotiations in 2012, two years after the USA joined. The Federal Liberals officially signed the TPP in February 2016.
Newly elected President Trump signed an executive order, pulling America from the TPP on January 23, 2017.
(Government of Canada)