With a 30-day pause on potential United States tariffs on Canada set to expire on March 4th, this nation’s premiers were in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday.
Senior advisors for President Donald Trump sat down with Canada’s premiers for what Ontario’s Doug Ford called a “very constructive conversation.”
The premiers also used the meeting to underlined the fact that Canada becoming the 51st state is a “non-starter”, according to B.C.’s David Eby.
All 13 premiers were on the trip to Capitol Hill but various reports noted that Dennis King from Prince Edward Island and Tim Houston from Nova Scotia had to depart early due to weather concerns. It is a historic venture marking the first time all 13 have ever set foot in Washington, D.C. at the same time.
The 25 per cent across-the-board tariffs that were slated to be levied against Canada by the U.S were put on hold by Trump for 30-days after speaking with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau back on February 3rd.
Ensuring the U.S. is not taken advantage of in trade relationships and border security remain among Trump’s concerns. In an effort to, in part, address those issues Canada appointed a former law enforcement officer with the RCMP as the country’s new fentanyl czar.
A release from the Prime Minister’s office this week states that Kevin Brosseau, effective immediately, will work closely with U.S. counterparts and law enforcement agencies “to accelerate Canada’s ongoing work to detect, disrupt, and dismantle the fentanyl trade.”
Alberta’s Danielle Smith thinks diplomacy is working. She says “I think the fact that we got a 30-day reprieve was because we agreed to work on the cross-border problem of fentanyl. I was pleased to see the federal government appoint a fentanyl czar and my administration has already been in touch with him to talk about how in Alberta we can lend to the success of those efforts.”
