REGINA – Premier Scott Moe is set to head to Washington D.C. next week as part of the Council of the Federation joint mission on trade.
In a news release, the province states that Moe plans to meet with US elected officials and businesses and emphasize the strong trading relationship between Canada and the United States. After his visit to Washington, D.C., Moe plans to travel to Mexico to meet business and elected officials there.
Moe’s trip happens at a time of continued uncertainty over what will happen after the 30-day pause on President Donald Trump’s threatened tariffs on Canadian exports to the US. Today, there were further trade worries as Trump indicated he would be pursuing “reciprocal tariffs” on countries next week.
Moe spoke to reporters at the Legislature on Friday about his plans for next week. He said it will be a small delegation from Saskatchewan that will advocate alongside 12 other Premiers “on behalf of collectively all Canadians, to advocate not only with appointees within the Trump administration, but potentially governors, senators, congressmen, and the business community as well that’s doing business back and forth across the border. That will be the Tuesday evening and Wednesday portion of this mission.”
At the front end of the trip Moe says he will be spending a couple of days working “on behalf of Saskatchewan residents solely in meeting with some of the contacts that we have acquired over the last number of years during our time in Washington.”
Afterwards Moe will go to Mexico “to see some of our import-export partners in that space, as well as some opportunities to have some meetings with government officials in Mexico City as well.”
“Again, Mexico is a significant trading partner in the export market for Saskatchewan. They are a growing market for Saskatchewan and a third partner in the USMCA agreement that we have.”
Moe said there will be two conversations to be had while in Washington. The first is on border security and fentanyl, with Moe saying there had been “significant action taken by our federal government as well as by a number of provincial governments.”
“I think there’s opportunity for us to take even more action collaboratively together on our own to remove that poison from our communities, to remove it from our province, our nation, and ultimately to work alongside the US to keep it out of our continent of North America.”
The second conversation is tariff-related, Moe indicated. “The second part is ultimately the renegotiation of the USMCA, which is scheduled to happen, and I would expect that those discussions will start to happen sooner rather than later.”
Moe also spoke of some of the heightened comments coming from both sides of the border on the issue.
“We are hearing some rhetoric that comes south of the border. We have much happening in the political circles nationally here in Canada as well, and I would just remind Saskatchewan residents and Canadian residents of the longstanding trade relationship and allied relationship that Canada and Saskatchewan folks have with our American partners. We have built a strong, vibrant, growing North American economy,” Moe said.
“We build together energy, food, manufacturing, security, and despite some of the discussions that will be happening now and maybe for the next number of weeks, we most certainly, our goal is to get back to that strong, growing, vibrant economy where we’re providing that food, energy, and manufacturing security for everyone that lives in North America. We add value to one another’s products alongside one another, not in spite of one another, and most certainly that is the goal for us, and we would encourage all Canadians and everyone in North America to keep that in focus.”
There are also plans for Premier Moe and several members of his Cabinet to travel inside and outside of Canada to advocate for Saskatchewan trade. According to the province’s news release, these efforts will focus on promoting the province as a global supplier of food and energy security, while strengthening relationships with key international trading partners.
Moe did not have a lot of specifics to share about those efforts but did indicate the markets whether they would want to be in are “markets of interest.” In addition to Mexico he pointed to India, Japan, South Korea, and the United Arab Emirates, as well as European markets such as Germany or in London, England.
“So that might be an example of some markets that we will engage with, whether it’s the Minister of Trade and Export and Development, whether it’s the Minister of Agriculture, whether it’s myself in the not- too-distant future,” Moe said.
“And if part of our strategy here is to ensure we’re engaging with our largest trading partner, which is the United States of America, so that we don’t have tariffs imposed on Saskatchewan and Canadian goods, if those tariffs do arrive, our secondary goal is to have them removed as quickly as possible. And alongside all of that effort, it’s incumbent on us to ensure that we’re talking to some of the other growing markets that we have around the world, and we might have the opportunity to even further diversify our exports, even though today we are the most diversified of any province in Canada.”
He said his goal is “to have a non-tariff environment.”
“That’s how we work best together. That’s how we grow that North American economy, and that’s how we ultimately create wealth in this province. We create wealth by exporting products to over 160 nations around the world, but the largest of those markets is the US. 55 per cent of what we produce finds its way to the US. It’s our most significant trading partner and our most allied nation.”
Moe was also asked if there was any plan to support businesses should the tariffs come in next month. He responded by pointing to the need to “have a very calm hand” in approaching this discussion.
“There is a time for us to make decisions, and there’s a time for us to prepare as to what those decisions might be. We saw a lot of talk about the imposition of tariffs by President Trump on Canadian goods. At the end of the day, there was no imposition of those tariffs, yet. We saw a lot of talk of various leaders across Canada on what a counter-tariff environment might look like, and how those counter-tariffs might be imposed. We didn’t see any counter-tariffs by the government of Canada that were imposed.”
Moe reiterated the need to “make the decisions as it’s necessary to make them. Yes, prepare along the way, but don’t discuss publicly what you may or might not do. Make that decision when you actually have to make the decision.”
While Moe prepares to go to D.C., Opposition Leader Carla Beck continued her efforts reaching out to stakeholders on the tariff issue. According to an NDP news release she had addressed the Saskatchewan Stock Growers Association on Friday at Whitecap Dakota First Nation and was to speak to labour leaders in Saskatoon on Saturday.
The NDP news release included Beck’s remarks to the stock growers, in which she said the following:
“What we’ve seen from the people of Saskatchewan and Canadians from coast-to-coast-to-coast is that we are ready to work with our neighbours to the south to ensure the economic prosperity and security of those on both sides of the border. We will not sit down or roll over to threats to Canadian livelihoods and Canadian sovereignty.”