Editing Pierre Trudeau (section)

==== Germany ====
Trudeau had an especially close friendship with the Social Democratic West German Chancellor [[Helmut Schmidt]], whom he greatly liked both for his left-wing politics and as a practical politician who was more concerned about getting things done rather than with ideological questions.{{sfn|Granatstein|Bothwell|1991|p=253}} Schmidt was sympathetic towards Trudeau's "rebalancing" concept, telling Trudeau that he wanted West Germany to have two North American partners instead of one, and promised at a 1975 meeting to use West German influence within the EEC to grant Canada better trade terms in exchange for Canada spending more on its NATO commitments.{{sfn|Granatstein|Bothwell|1991|pp=253-254}} After meeting Schmidt, Trudeau performed a ''volte-face'' on NATO, speaking at a press conference of how much he valued NATO as an alliance that was established for collective security in Europe.{{sfn|Granatstein|Bothwell|1991|p=254}} To show his approval of Schmidt, Trudeau not only agreed to spend more on NATO, but insisted that the Canadian Army buy the German-built [[Leopard 1|Leopard]] tank, which thereby boosted the West German arms industry, over the opposition of the Finance department, which felt that buying the Leopard tanks was wasteful.{{sfn|Granatstein|Bothwell|1991|pp=254-255}} Schmidt's support was especially welcome as Wilson, once again back as the British prime minister, proved unwilling to lobby for the EEC lowering tariffs on Canadian goods, merely saying that he was willing "to interpret Canadian policy" to the other EEC leaders.{{sfn|Granatstein|Bothwell|1991|p=268}} By contrast, the West German Foreign Minister [[Hans-Dietrich Genscher]] gave Trudeau a firm promise of West German support for an EEC-Canadian economic agreement.{{sfn|Granatstein|Bothwell|1991|p=168}} The major hold-out was France, which was stoutly opposed to an EEC-Canadian agreement, believing that giving EEC market access to Canadian agriculture as a threat to French agriculture.{{sfn|Granatstein|Bothwell|1991|pp=168-169}} In July 1976 a Canadian-EEC Framework Economic Agreement was signed, which came into effect on October 1, 1976.{{sfn|Granatstein|Bothwell|1991|p=158}} Trudeau hoped would be the Framework Agreement would be the first step towards a Canadian-EEC free trade agreement, but the EEC proved to be uninterested in free trade with Canada.{{sfn|Granatstein|Bothwell|1991|p=158}}