Canada: Ontario Premier Doug Ford calls meeting with PM Trudeau as 'productive'

Ford met with Trudeau for the first time after the former got elected in the recently concluded provincial election.

The Premier also stated he will cooperate with his federal counterparts in the ongoing North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) negotiations.

Tweeting a picture in which the two leaders could be seen shaking their hands, Ford said: "Had a productive first official meeting with Prime Minister @JustinTrudeau this afternoon. I restated my commitment to stand side-by-side with our federal counterparts in the ongoing NAFTA negotiations."

The 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 has alleged that the US faced severe losses in trade pacts with Canada and Mexico, the two partners of NAFTA deal.

For more than two years, US President Trump criticised the agreement and also hinted to take some serious steps being in the administration or at least send some ultimatums.

Early this month, Ford-led Progressive Conservative (PC) had swept the provincial election to end nearly 15 years of Liberal Party rule in Ontario.

Ford succeeded Kathleen Wynne as the Premier.

(Reporting by Suman Das)