Harris, Trudeau discuss trade policy in her 1st foreign leader call

Vice President Kamala Harris spoke with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday, in her first phone call with a foreign leader since the inauguration.

Harris and Trudeau discussed trade policies and China's arrest of Canadian citizens Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor. At the U.S.'s request, Canada arrested Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in 2018, with the U.S. wanting to extradite her on fraud charges. Beijing appears to have retaliated with the detention of Kovrig and Spavor, and a readout from the White House shows that Harris promised Trudeau the U.S. will do "everything it can" to secure their release.

The readout released by Trudeau's office says they also talked about a planned meeting later this month, although it is not clear if Trudeau and Harris will get together in person or virtually. They did not appear to discuss the Keystone XL pipeline, one point of contention between the U.S. and Canada; in one of his first executive orders, President Biden revoked a permit for the controversial project, which would carry oil from Canada to the Midwest.

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