2 days Ago By Ari Yanover
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says she hopes the province’s oil exports as well as its food production will escape the U.S. tariffs expected to be implemented on Wednesday.
Speaking in Brooks on Tuesday, Smith said she had no confirmed knowledge of what was to come April 2, but was optimistic those industries would avoid the full force of the new levies. “My inclination, from what I’ve heard from different ministries of our different administration officials, is that it looks like it’s just going to be sectoral application for the most part,” she said, adding, “from what I’m hearing, they still haven’t settled on what it’s going to look like tomorrow.” “They talk about reciprocal tariffs, and so we don’t have any tariffs on their oil and gas.
So I’m assuming that means that they’re not going to have tariffs on our oil and gas.” She said the same was true for most food production and that raw materials and intermediate goods should not be tariffed at all. “That’s what I’m hoping to see tomorrow,” she said.
“But we really just won’t know until we see the result.” “It’s hard to predict the U.S.
president.” President Donald Trump has labelled April 2 as “Liberation Day,” to mark the implementation of a series of tariffs, though details around those levies remain unclear. Speaking earlier Tuesday in Washington, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Trump will provide more details on the tariffs tomorrow and that they will be effective immediately.
“The president will be announcing a tariff plan that will roll back the unfair trade practices that have been ripping off our country for decades,” she said. “He is with his trade and tariff team right now, perfecting it to make sure this is a perfect deal for the American people and the American worker.” Wednesday also marks the end of the one-month exemption on the 25 per cent blanket tariffs on Canadian imports, with energy, including electricity and oil, tariffed at a lower 10 per cent rate.
Leavitt said Canada was one of a number of countries trying to negotiate ways to lessen or avoid those tariffs, but didn’t indicate there would be any country-based exemptions coming Wednesday. “There’s one country the president cares most about, and it’s the United States of America and doing what’s best for the people who elected him to this office, to restore their jobs, their wealth and their prosperity.” Smith said Tuesday that she would continue her strategy of visiting the U.
S. in an attempt to sway lawmakers and influencers against tariffs. “I’m going to continue in that strategy,” she said.
“We had to do a full court press right to the last minute. We’re going to keep doing that.” mblack@postmedia.
com.
