New Brunswick’s premier has detailed how the province will respond to U.S. tariffs set to be imposed on Canadian imports starting Tuesday.
Premier Susan Holt has directed NB Liquor to stop buying American alcohol and to remove their products from the shelves.
NB Liquor sells around $40 million worth of American alcohol products in its stores, the premier told reporters on Monday.
The government has also been directed to stop signing deals with United States companies, except for “critical services” that cannot be immediately replaced.
However, Holt said her government does not plan on cancelling existing deals like some other provinces have decided to do.
“One, there’s cancellation fees and costs to that. Two, there’s the disruption and the time to replace, and for certain critical services, we wouldn’t want to destablize the economy more than these tariffs have already done,” she said.
“We’re going through the process of identifying which things that we would typically buy American or have in the past where we can transfer those purchases to Canadian companies or alternate companies and which things we can’t because those alternatives don’t exist.”
It is unclear how much of a financial impact this would have on the United States, but Holt noted that much of the government’s procurement is already New Brunswick or Canadian.
The premier was also asked about withholding energy exports to the United States — something she said has been “a tool of last resort” for the federal government.
“It’s something that comes with a lot of negative impact for our province and our country, but obviously has a significant impact on the U.S. We’re not at that point yet and I do have some deep concerns about it,” she said.
Provincial departments are working with the federal government to finalize support programs for workers and entrepreneurs. Holt said she hopes to share more details later this week.
New Brunswick is also reviewing internal trade barriers to strengthen the Canadian economy in collaboration with federal, provincial and territorial governments, according to a news release.
“We would love to see New Brunswickers supporting New Brunswick and Canada at a time like this and that’s with their grocery dollars as well as with their tourism and their vacation purchases,” said Holt.
