A non-profit organization representing Atlantic Canada’s energy industry is welcoming a 30-day reprieve from proposed U.S. tariffs on energy products.
Michelle Robichaud, president of the Atlantica Centre for Energy, said tariffs would have a huge impact on the sector and our region’s economy as a whole.
“The energy system in Atlantic Canada and the northeast region of the United States is highly integrated, both for refined petroleum products, our electricity grid, natural gas, heating oil,” Robichaud told our newsroom.
“These are all important things that help people stay warm in the winter and keep the lights on and keep businesses running effectively.”
Robichaud added that tariffs would affect the entire northeast region disproportionately compared to the rest of our countries.
More than $10 billion worth of energy products are imported to New England from Canada every single year, according to the centre.
Robichaud said there is very little existing infrastructure that would allow companies to send their energy products elsewhere.
“Canada and the United States have been trading partners for hundreds of years, long, long ago, and our trade traditionally flows north to south, rather than east to west in Canada,” she said.
“All of the infrastructure that has been established over those many years took an awful lot of time to build out. It’s not something that you can just turn around overnight and decide that you want to send your energy east or over to Europe.”
The centre is calling on business and government leaders to be vocal about the importance and strength of New England and Atlantic Canada’s integrated and reciprocal energy and trade relationship.
It is also encouraging the federal and provincial governments to immediately explore short-term measures to enable more energy trade across Atlantic and eastern Canada to help minimize the need for American imports such as crude oil.
“Tariff costs are not born by foreign countries, they are paid by customers. The voice of businesses and industry are ones that will resonate in Washington; customers throughout North America need to understand the implications, as well as employees and communities,” Stephen MacMackin, the centre’s chair, said in a statement.
“We all must raise our voices in opposition of a trade war between two countries that have historically had the best trading relationship in the world.”
