Leaders in Alberta’s energy sector say they aren’t panicking after Donald Trump threatened to slap a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian goods.
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“As Canadians, we need to be eyes-wide-open on the President-elect’s promise for across-the-board tariffs,” said Lisa Baiton, president and CEO of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.
“It is time to stop dithering around with domestic policy that kills our biggest GDP generators and job creators, like the emissions cap, and move with alacrity to support our most productive industries,” she said.
“We are calling on the federal government to work with the incoming administration to resolve these issues immediately, thereby avoiding any unnecessary tariffs on Canadian exports to the U.S.,” Smith said in a post on X.
Heather Exner-Pirot, head of energy studies at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, said the tariff threat is a prime example of the dictum, “take Trump seriously but not literally.”
“Canadian crude oil is a very hard import for the U.S. to replace,” said Exner-Pirot. “Their refineries are optimized for our oil.”
Exner-Pirot added that any action seen as hurting Americans at the pump would be damaging for Trump in highly competitive swing states.
“The silver lining of this situation is that the American public has never been more aware of how much Canadian oil goes to the U.S.,” said Exner-Pirot.
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