New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt said the premiers in Canada are unified in trying to eliminate potentially significant and damaging tariff threats from incoming U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.
“We talked through the strategy for that and how we’re going to go forward,” she said speaking with reporters. “We continued to share information about the allies and the relationships we’ve been developing and advancing in the US.”
Holt was part of a meeting between the Canadian premiers, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc on Wednesday.
She said there is ‘deep concern’ over the damage the tariffs could create.
“My counterparts in the neighbouring states, in Maine, in New Hampshire, and Connecticut, and beyond, all share the same feelings that we do, that these tariffs are going to hurt their economies,” she said. “It’s going to hurt their people and their workers. It’s going to make life more expensive. And that’s the same thing Canadians are saying.”
Trump has threatened not only to implement 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian imports but has mused about using “economic force” to take over the country, making it the 51st state.
She said the federal and provincial governments have developed a strategy, which could include retaliation.
“The strategy is ready, and we have a plan for counter-tariffs should we need to use it,” she said. “The number one goal is to prevent the tariffs, but we are ready to act to lift them as quickly as possible with a strategy of retaliatory tariffs on imports.”
Holt said Canadians are proud of their identity.
“We don’t appreciate the threats that are coming from President Trump to that effect,” Holt said. “I think he’ll realize how integrated our economies are, how closely we have been as allies, neighbours, and friends, and how damaging to his economy that these tariff measures will be.”
She has also met with several big businesses in New Brunswick, including J.D. Irving, Limited, Irving Oil, McCain, several agricultural producers and lobster producers, and Cooke Aquaculture, all of which export goods to the U.S.
“We’re getting together again for an additional meeting this week, and we hear deep concern from those companies because of how much they sell into the US and the impact that these terrorists will have on their businesses,” she said.
In 2022, New Brunswick exported nearly $21 billion in product to the United States, according to the Eastern Border Transportation Coalition.
“We’ve been working actively with the businesses in New Brunswick, and we will continue to do so … (and) we’re preparing and a response to these tariffs recognizes the impacts that they’re going to feel.”
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is scheduled to be sworn into office on Jan. 20.
— with files from Brad Perry, Acadia Broadcasting
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