New Brunswick’s premier says tariffs threatened by incoming U.S. president Donald Trump pose an “extremely serious” threat to our province.
Susan Holt spoke with reporters after the country’s premiers and territorial leaders met with the prime minister and other federal ministers on Wednesday.
“The premiers are unified in that shared goal of eliminating the tariffs, ideally before they’re ever put in place, otherwise as quickly as possible thereafter,” said Holt.
Holt said she and her team have met with governors from the New England states and beyond to discuss how tariffs would impact citizens in both countries.
They have also had meetings with New Brunswick’s major exports to discuss the issue and understand their concerns further.
Holt said in a statement in late November that 92 per cent of exports from New Brunswick go to the United States.
“We hear deep concern from those companies because of how much they sell into the U.S. and the impact that these tariffs will have on their businesses,” the premier said.
RELATED: Canadian manufacturers worried about Trump tariffs
A recent survey by Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters showed nearly three in five manufacturers anticipate “severe impacts” from the tariffs.
Ron Marcolin, divisional vice-president at the trade association, said the tariff threats are already having negative impacts.
“Some Canadian manufacturers have accelerated production. They’ve actually some of them have moved production to the United States if in fact they have a production facility in the U.S.,” Marcolin told our newsroom.
“Others have actually brought in raw materials quicker than scheduled, produced quicker than scheduled. They want to get as much of their product either inbound to then build and or outbound.”
Meanwhile, Holt said the federal government is ready with retaliatory tariffs if they need to be implemented.
“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,” she said.
