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Trudeau called Trump late that afternoon, and around the same time Nieto and Trump spoke by phone. By 7 p.m., the White House had issued a statement saying the President had agreed not to terminate NAFTA.

The diplomatic source suggested that the decision to reconsider was pay-off for the relationships that have been built between the Prime Minister’s Office and the White House.

A spokeswoman for the Prime Minister told the National Post Monday she had no comment to make. The White House did not respond by publication time to a request for comment.

Trump subsequently insisted he was not bluffing about threatening to pull out of NAFTA but that the phone calls with Trudeau and Pena Nieto prompted a change of heart.

“I like both these gentlemen very much,” Trump said. “I respect their countries very much. The relationship is very special. And I said, I will hold on the termination — let’s see if we can make it a fair deal.”

Trump acknowledged a speedy U.S. withdrawal would be a “pretty big shock to the system,” which was the basis of Trudeau’s argument. In a news conference in Saskatchewan the next day, Trudeau said he had told Trump that withdrawing from NAFTA would cost U.S. jobs.

The official readout of the call issued by the White House on April 26 deals with both the Trump-Trudeau and Trump-Nieto conversations, saying “both conversations were pleasant and productive” and that “the leaders agreed to proceed swiftly, according to their required internal procedures, to enable the renegotiation of the NAFTA deal to the benefit of all three countries.”