New Brunswick premier says meetings with U.S. officials focused on trade, tariff threats

New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt discusses the recent delegation trip to Washington, D.C., regarding tariffs.

Canadian premiers visited the U.S. capital last week in hopes of preventing forthcoming tariffs promised by the Trump administration.

In an interview with CTV Atlantic, premier Susan Holt discussed the effect that tariffs could have on the country’s economy.

Tariff threats

President Trump was not in attendance for meetings between top U.S. officials and premiers who worked to fend off the tariffs that have been top-of-mind for many Canadians since the president took office.

New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt said the meeting was productive and helped strengthen their position against the tariff threat.

“We weren’t expecting to get into the white house and meet with one of his senior officials,” said Holt in an interview with CTV’s Bruce Frisko on Friday. “That evolved on the day and I’m really pleased we did have that opportunity because we learned a lot in that conversation. But we were down there to meet with senators and congress people and those were productive conversations as well.”

Holt said she thought they increased their chances to avoid tariffs through the alliances they formed and by learning what issues mattered most to the president and the elected leaders around him.

Holt said the premiers focused on the economy and tariffs and did not discuss the President’s remarks about annexing Canada.

“It is frustrating because it’s a non-starter,” Holt said. “Canada is not going to become the 51st state no matter what President Trump says, and I wish we would stop focusing on it and getting down to the real business of protecting our economy.”

Holt said she thinks annexation threats play into President Trump’s desire to sow instability and chaos.

“I think we’ve got to take that seriously but we can’t give it the air it needs to breath because we’re focused on the kind of economic relationships that benefit Canadians and how we protect our economy here with a partner that’s proving more and more unpredictable.”

Saint John most ‘tariff-exposed’ city

A study by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce found that Saint John is the most “tariff-exposed” city in Canada.

Holt said the New Brunswick government is working to create support systems for those who would be hardest hit should tariffs be imposed.

“Saint John actually is the hub of some of our biggest forestry companies, obviously our largest petroleum exporter, our largest seafood company,” Holt said. “So they really are going to be hit in multiple sectors if these tariffs do in fact come into play.”

Holt said they want to have programs in place if people get laid-off.

“We’re talking about packages to support our enterprises and businesses so they can weather this storm,” she said.

Just the threat of tariffs already had a significant impact on the province, Holt said.

“The economic forecast had been 1.3 per cent GDP growth right up until the moment Trump opened his mouth and said he was going to put tariffs on our economy,” Holt said. “Then we watched that growth forecast tank. We watched business investment freeze, we watched hiring freeze, and it’s affected our revenues this year.”

Mitigating the effect of tariffs

Negotiations focused on preventing tariffs but Holt said premiers are looking at options to mitigate the economic impact that tariffs would have.

The premier said there has been increased interest in reviving the Energy East project, which would see a pipeline built from Alberta to New Brunswick to transport oil across the country. She said Premier Francois Legault of Quebec indicated an openness to Energy East as they were waiting in line at the White House.

“There’s a lot of possibility with a national project that could change the energy landscape in Canada,” Holt said. “I’m keen to hear from New Brunswickers about what they think about reviving that project and getting access to Canadian resources that move west to east that land in Saint John.”

Premiers are also discussing the removal of inter-provincial trade barriers but Holt said that would require all premiers to be on the same page to remove some protections for local businesses.

“Which means that New Brunswick small businesses have a chance to play in Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, P.E.I., beyond,” said Holt. “What they might proceed to lose in our local market, they gain in our neighbouring market.”

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