Manitoba’s Chamber of Commerce president was in North Dakota Monday in hopes of urging his counterpart to continue to pressure his government over the Canada-US trade war.
“The tariffs that are being put in place right now, they’re simply going to escalate, that’s our major concern,” Chuck Davidson said.
“At the end of the day nobody wins when we go through a tariff war like this.”
U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration recently slapped tariffs on Canada’s steel and alumninum industry. In response, the Trudeau government placed retaliatory tariffs on U.S. steel and aluminum products as well as a 10 per cent tariff on more than 80 consumer products.
For Manitoba and North Dakota, that means higher prices on both sides of the border.
The province imports about $900 million worth of goods from North Dakota, Davidson said, while the state imports about $500 million worth of Canadian goods from Manitoba.
“We really wanted to come down and have a conversation with them in terms of the challenges they’re feeling as well and some of what they can potentially do as well,” Davidson said.
“We see the importance of NAFTA. We want our U.S. counterparts doing the same … and deal with the facts instead of the rhetoric.”
The Manitoba Chamber of Commerce is fine with “tweaking” NAFTA, he said, but both sides need to be at the table.
“So if there’s a need to modernize, absolutely modernize. Let’s get a deal that works so we can continue with business as usual.”