Trudeau's socks on Thursday had the Star Wars Wookiee character Chewbacca

Sporting a pair zany of Star Wars-themed socks, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has appealed to Silicon Valley executives to take advantage of Canada's generous immigration laws.

It came just days after Trudeau made headlines by insisting - on feminist grounds - that 'mankind' be replaced with 'peoplekind'. He now says the remark was in jest.

Trudeau made the rounds in the San Francisco Bay Area on Thursday, promoting Canadian globalism and the country's new fast-track work visa as reasons to relocate north of the border.

As American technology employers worry about access to the ranks of foreign programmers that they have grown accustomed to hiring, Canada is offering a two-week, fast-track employment permit for certain workers, dubbed the 'global skills strategy visa.'

Government-sponsored billboards in Silicon Valley pitch: 'H1-B Problems? Pivot to Canada.'

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during a visit to the offices of AppDirect on Thursday. He is pitching Canada as a destination for tech firms that want to hire immigrants

Trudeau leans in for a selfie with employees as he leaves the offices of Salesforce on Thursday

Trudeau demurred when asked whether President Donald Trump's immigration enforcement efforts are making the sales pitch easier, pointing to the power of globalism.

'We know that bringing in great talent from around the world is an enormous benefit, not just to the companies that want to do that, but to Canadian jobs and to our country as a whole, so we're going to continue to do that,' he said.

Trudeau's charm offensive is already yielding some early successes.

On Thursday, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff announced the online business software company will invest another $2 billion in its Canadian operations over the next five years.

And San Francisco-based AppDirect, an online management platform whose co-CEO first met Trudeau in political science class at McGill University in Montreal, said it would add another 300 jobs in Canada in the next five years.

Trudeau is also meeting with Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos to promote Toronto as the location for Amazon's second headquarters.

Toronto, which has created a government-sponsored innovation hub for tech companies, was the only one of several Canadian cities that applied to make the shortlist.

Justin Trudeau, right, meets with eBay CEO Devin Wenig on Thursday in San Francisco

Trudeau's stop in San Francisco also highlights the already strong ties between Canada and California, particularly in research, academia and technology.

While much of the attention on the North American Free Trade Agreement has focused on physical commodities such as vehicle manufacturing, dairy and timber, skilled workers have also become increasingly mobile between the US, Canada and Mexico.

Google built its latest DeepMind artificial intelligence facility at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, after several of its graduates came to work on the project.

The next round of talks over the 24-year-old NAFTA trade pact in Mexico later this month loomed over Trudeau's visit. Trump has called the agreement a job-killing 'disaster' on the campaign trail and has threatened to withdraw from it if he can't get what he wants.

The lengthy talks have increased the political pressure and the rhetoric in Canada, where the stakes are high.

Trudeau is on a charm offensive to convince American companies to invest more in Canada

AppDirect President and Co-CEO, Dan Saks (left) speaks before introducing Trudeau

Trudeau declined to talk about NAFTA deal specifics Thursday, but said Canada wants an agreement that is 'win-win-win' for all three countries.

'We're going to continue to make an argument that it's not enough to just trade, we have to ensure that the benefits of trade are properly and fairly shared,' he said.

There are hundreds, maybe thousands - no one can say for sure - of Canadians in the tech industry in Northern California, many of them on visas made possible through the trade pact.

Without NAFTA, 'those (jobs) go away. That could cause immediate disruption for the tech community' on both sides of the border, said Daniel Ujczo, an international trade lawyer based in Columbus, Ohio, who has been part of the talks, now in their sixth round.

'It's unfortunately not an area that is up for discussion. Canada and Mexico keep raising worker mobility issues, but the US won't discuss it,' he said.

Trudeau will meet with Governor Jerry Brown and Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, both Democrats, on Friday before he travels to Southern California to deliver a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

The location is a symbolic choice, referring to the longstanding trade relationship between the US and Canada. In 1988, Reagan and then-Prime Minister Brian Mulroney signed the first free trade agreement - a precursor to NAFTA.