Canada PM Trudeau to meet top Trump aide Kushner to talk NAFTA

By David Ljunggren CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - A top adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump will meet with advisers to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau this week as his Liberal government gathers to plan a response to a possible renegotiation of the NAFTA trade accord. Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, will travel to Calgary, Alberta, where the Canadian cabinet is meeting on a two-day retreat, according to a source, who requested anonymity given the sensitivity of the matter. Trump's vow to renegotiate the key trade agreement, which also includes Mexico, could sideswipe Canada's export-driven economy, and the visit by Kushner underlines the ties developing between the Trudeau and Trump camps. The meeting of Trudeau's leadership team, less than two weeks after he shuffled his cabinet to put his top minister in charge of the U.S. relationship, is focussed mainly on the best approach to take with Trump, who was inaugurated on Jan. 20. Trump said on Sunday he plans talks soon on the North American Free Trade Agreement, under which Canada and Mexico send the majority of their exports to the United States. Canadian officials, trying to persuade the new U.S. administration that focussing on Canada makes no sense, given how closely the economies are linked, say the Trump team is most concerned about large U.S. trade deficits with China and Mexico. "They haven't said anything specific about any real problems that they have with us," said David MacNaughton, Canada's ambassador to Washington and a key player on the NAFTA file. The danger, he told reporters on Sunday, is that Canada could suffer collateral damage from U.S. measures aimed at Mexico. Stephen Schwarzman, chief executive officer of investment firm Blackstone Group LP , has been invited to address the retreat on Monday. Schwarzman chairs ‎a panel of business leaders who give Trump advice. The challenge of dealing with Washington comes at a sensitive time for Trudeau, who is facing probes into a vacation he took with the Aga Khan as well as his centrist Liberal Party's fundraising activities. He is also under fire from Kevin O'Leary, a television personality running for the leadership of the opposition right-leaning Conservative Party, who says Trudeau is too weak to stand up to Trump. O'Leary complains that Trudeau, who came to power in 2015 promising to run a few years of modest budget deficits to fund infrastructure projects, has increased spending so much that finance ministry officials predict shortfalls for decades. While polls show the Liberals well ahead of their rivals in the run-up to the 2019 election, pollster Nik Nanos of Nanos Research says O'Leary could eat into Liberal support by positioning himself as a fiscal hawk. (Editing by Paul Simao and Alan Crosby)