Prior to the news that President Trump has delayed tariffs by at least 30 days, Premier Scott Moe told reporters he believes Canada needs to de-escalate and not openly discuss any retaliatory measures from President Donald Trump’s tariffs. He considers Mexico getting a month’s reprieve a good sign and suggests they got there by taking action with the President’s demands. Moe believes adding more border security has been a good thing, not just because it’s one of Trump’s requests, but because it also lessens the amount of illegal fentanyl available, pointing to recent seizures in Canada.
He states that Saskatchewan is 55 per cent reliant on U.S. trade., which is the least reliant of the provinces, but he believes the province and the country needs to diversify its trading partners. To that end, Moe is visiting Washington next week followed by a short trip to Mexico. which the Premier says is increasingly becoming a much stronger trading partner since the USMCA (U.S.-Mexico-Canada) trade agreement which went into effect in 2020, when Trump was in power the first time around.
Premier Moe was asked if there would be an emergency sitting of the Legislature to come up with some strategies, as NDP Leader Carla Beck has suggested, but he questioned why it would be needed, saying, “We don’t need to reconvene the Legislature to put up some billboards in the subway in the community of Chicago.” One of the NDP’s suggestions is to launch an advertising campaign in key states to Saskatchewan warning American consumers about the risk of higher fuel, energy, and food prices caused by tariffs and the opportunities we share when the two countries work together.
Moe agrees with the retaliatory suite of tariffs the Government of Canada has presented, but he emphasizes that tariffs can’t be the only answer because we will lose that war. For individuals who want to take actions, he suggests anyone deciding to shop local is something he has always agreed with, even prior to the recent tariff talk.
In response to the 30-day pause on tariffs, Saskatchewan NDP Leader Carla Becks says, “No one wins in a trade war. This pause in the implementation of tariffs is very welcome and we continue to advocate for our continued economic and security partnership with the United States. Our nations have always been stronger together. Beck says the Official Opposition will continue to work with partners and leaders on both sies of the border to ensure that everybody wins when we work together.
