Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said she is optimistic that since U.S. President Donald Trump did not impose tariffs on Canadian imports on Day 1 of his presidency, Canada will find options to work out an arrangement of some sort with the country’s southern neighbour.
“I’m an optimist,” Smith told reporters on a video conference call from Washington, D.C., on Tuesday morning. “I think there’s a deal to be made here.
“My interpretation of the president is he likes to win, so it’s up to us to demonstrate how we can get a double win here. I think it’s a double win to sell more to the United States, buy more from the United States, have a joint-energy security strategy that leads to a national and international security strategy.”
Weeks ahead of his inauguration, Trump threatened to impose 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian and Mexican goods — citing what he says is a trade deficit with Canada — and suggested it could be in Canada’s interest to become the United States’ 51st state. He has also said he is concerned with what he believes are large amounts of fentanyl and undocumented people crossing into the U.S. from Canada.
With fears Trump could impose crippling tariffs on Canada on his first day in the White House, federal and provincial lawmakers in Canada have been meeting to come up with a response. While signing executive orders on Monday, Trump revealed his administration may move forward with those tariffs on Feb. 1.
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“We were pleased to see Canada got a Day 1 reprieve from tariffs,” said Smith, who has been in Washington to lobby U.S. lawmakers to try and avert the imposition of tariffs, particularly on Alberta oil and gas.
“We have a short window to demonstrate the very positive relationship that Canada and the U.S. have from a tariff-free point of view and why it should remain tariff-free.”
Smith also noted that Trump signed an executive order on Monday to have U.S. federal agencies study trade issues and deliver a report to his administration on April 1.
“We think our best approach now would be to focus on diplomacy, and refrain from talk of any kind of threat of retaliatory tariffs,” she said. “We think that we have a very positive story to tell in Canada. We think that we should be talking about addressing the trade deficit by how we might be able to have more cross-border trade in goods and services.
“The point I’ve been making is that if you take energy out of the mix, Canada actually buys more goods and services than the Americans buy from us.”
On Tuesday morning, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said if Trump imposes tariffs, he supports “the principle of dollar-for-dollar matching tariffs.”
Last week, Smith declined to sign a joint statement with Trudeau and other premiers that called for every possible countermeasure to be on the table to push back against tariffs.
Some Canadian lawmakers have accused Smith of being too focused on trying to arrange for a carve-out for Alberta’s natural resources but on Tuesday the premier said she is seeking a carve-out for Canada as a whole.
“I may take a bit of a different approach from my counterparts, but I think it’s going to be a successful one,” she said, adding that she believes Trump’s stated goal of the U.S. moving toward energy dominance is something Canada should look at helping him achieve because it could be in Canada’s national interest.
On Monday, Trump said he would declare a national energy emergency in the U.S. in an effort to decrease gas prices for American consumers and to export more American energy.
“I believe that the Americans can’t get there without Canada. The Americans consume 21 million barrels per day of oil, they produce 13 million barrels per day and they have to get the balance from somewhere.”
Smith said she believes Canada can curry favour with the Trump administration by continuing to take steps to address the U.S. concerns about border security and ensuring Canada meets its NATO commitments on defence spending. She also called on the Trudeau government to repeal environmental policies like clean electricity regulations and the federal emissions cap.
Prior to Trump’s inauguration, Smith travelled to the president’s Florida home to advocate for Alberta’s interests in response to the tariff threats.
“The administration knows who Alberta is,” she said. “They know we’ve got a lot of oil and gas.”
–with files from The Canadian Press’s Kelly Geraldine Malone
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