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It’s been a week since Canada was hit by a 35 per cent tariff on Canadian goods, but most goods will likely be protected from the devastating tariffs.
The White House has said the tariffs won’t be applied to goods that are compliant with the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement on trade, also known as CUSMA.
Earlier this week, Premier Scott Moe joined the Evan Bray Show with guest host Tamara Cherry to discuss Canadian and Saskatchewan trade.
Now, Carla Beck, leader of the Saskatchewan NDP, joins the show to give her reaction to Moe’s comments and how the province should protect tariff-impacted sectors and their workers.
Listen to the full interview with Beck, or read the transcript below:
The following questions and answers have been edited for length and clarity.
TAMARA CHERRY: So Carla, this was Doug Ford this week: ‘Dollar for dollar, tariff for tariff. They understand strength, not weakness, and we should never, ever roll over and be weak.’ Carla Beck this week, ‘Donald Trump is a bully, and Scott Moe’s plan has basically been to let him steal our lunch money and then offer to make him a sandwich. That’s not going to work. We need to fight back against these job-killing tariffs, and we need bold action to build a future that we control.’
Is it just me, Carla, or is our conservative premier sounding like our liberal Prime Minister, and is our NDP leader sounding like Ontario’s conservative Premier?
CARLA BECK: There are a lot of strange things happening right now. I think what is important right now is that Donald Trump is a bully. He’s behaving like a bully, and what bullies look for is weakness. We cannot wait to be picked off one by one, as provinces. We need to stand together. We need to understand that, despite what Donald Trump says, we do have what they need. I’ve just spent the last two weeks with legislators from the Pacific Northwest and the Midwest, and they understand that.
It’s time for us to show resolve. We all hope that things go back to more normal times, but until then, we have to show strength. We have to control what we can control, and we have to find ways to get our world-class products to markets other than the U.S., and we can never forget what’s happened here. We can never put ourselves in this position again. This is a time to show strength, and I think if we continue to do that, we’re in a very strong position here.
You mused recently about Saskatchewan holding some very big cards for these talks about uranium and potash. You seem to agree with Premier Moe about wanting to get back to a normal trading relationship, but you said we need the American President to take the gun away from our heads. Does that mean tariffing potash or uranium?
BECK: I don’t think that that is what we need to do. There are legislators, decision makers and businesses in the United States that understand that they cannot meet their energy needs without our uranium. They cannot grow the food that they need to grow for themselves and export in the United States without our potash. They need our lumber, they need our tourism. And not only is this having an impact here in Canada, but this is having a huge impact on the United States, and I think we need to continue to act like we do have some cards to hold, because we do have some very big cards here.
Should we just be acting like we have those cards to hold and having conversations about how important our potash, uranium and lumber are? Or should we be acting on those and laying out our cards? What do you mean by fighting back in bold action?
BECK: The good thing about our position is we don’t have to act. We don’t have to puff ourselves up. The reality is, without uranium from Saskatchewan, the electricity generation through nuclear power in the United States would cease to exist. Without our potash, they cannot grow what they need to feed themselves and continue to export food in the United States. As I said, many legislators in the United States understand this. Unfortunately, Donald Trump is not one of them right now. We need to continue to be firm in our resolve and act as a united front.
You just mentioned a united front. You and our premier are not having a united front right now. I’m just curious where exactly you guys differ? What’s Scott Moe doing wrong here?
BECK: First of all, we saw Scott Moe having the weakest and latest response. So, going back to March of this year, when other provinces were pulling American liquor off the shelves and when they were looking at their procurement to source locally, instead of from the United States, our premier had to be dragged kicking and screaming to do that. And he was the first one to go back on those measures.
He’s been identified by Americans as being one of the weakest links, Alberta and Saskatchewan. And that’s what bullies look for. We need to be united across this country. We need to show resolve. We need to understand that we are holding some very big cards here. I don’t think that when you’re in a situation like this, you want to reveal all of your next steps to those on the other side. I don’t think that that is wise.
Are you speaking about his comments about wanting to maybe scale back counter tariffs?
BECK: I’m talking about having a united front and not signalling what your next move is going to be. Right now, we are holding some big cards if we are united as a country, if we continue to work to be able to diversify and get exports to other markets, to work quickly, to build those pipelines, those rail lines, those power lines, to make sure that we are not so dependent on the United States, I think that’s where our efforts best lie right now.
Do you think that the premier should be saying that we’re not putting counter tariffs on potash off the table, but thinking it’s not actually what we’re going to?
BECK: I think that the premier needs to show that we are going to be part of a united front in this country. I don’t think we need to show all of our cards right now in terms of what our next move would be. What I hear the premier doing is using language like you know, what Trump is doing is resetting trade relationships. That’s fairly euphemistic for someone who has come in and really thrown a bomb when it comes to international trade, having huge impacts on exports to the United States right now, whether that’s ag or energy or forestry, they’re all down.
Which would be expected at this point, to be fair. So, tell me, because you guys have been making a big deal of those numbers. Farming, fisheries, intermediate food products are down 16.5 per cent from Saskatchewan to the U.S. Energy products are down 13.4 per cent. How different would those numbers be if we had an NDP government?
BECK: I think that having a united front puts us in a stronger position here. There is no doubt that what is happening south of the border is having an impact beyond the control of any government right now, but I know that our best chance is to show a united front.
You had said in March that the province and the feds should start reviewing these EV tariffs on China. Would you join Premier Moe in urging the federal government to scrap the EV tariff altogether, to hopefully get this 100% canola tariff off?
BECK: I think we need to be prepared to do that, and we’ve said that from the very beginning.
Are you prepared to go to the federal government and advocate for Saskatchewan to get those EV tariffs off?
BECK: Absolutely. We also have a trade office in China and I would suggest the premier use that trade office. This is having a huge impact, a 26 per cent decrease from those exports. This has got a lot of producers in this province, very worried. We need to use all the tools in the toolbox.
