Holt calls for aggressive and creative use of 30-day pause in U.S. tariffs

New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt says the tariff threat from the United States has created uncertainty for business and been a wake-up call for the country.

"We have been so dependent on what has been a really integrated and close economic relationship with the U.S.," she told Information Morning Fredericton.

New Brunswick and the rest of Canada had been preparing for the tariffs, which would have added 25 per cent to the cost of most Canadian products crossing the border into the U.S. starting at midnight Tuesday.

But late Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced U.S. President Donald Trump was delaying the tariffs by 30 days.

In New Brunswick, this meant a late change to allow U.S. products to remain on N.B. Liquor store shelves, although the Crown corporation won't be buying any new liquor products from the U.S. for now.

Holt said it is important to use the 30-day pause to be aggressive about removing internal trade barriers and getting all premiers at the table together.

The delay should be used to get creative about new markets and finding ways to work together as Atlantic provinces or within sectors, she said.

Trump's long-talked-about promise of tariffs is having an impact on businesses, Holt said.

"Ever since Trump said the word tariffs back in November, businesses have paused their investments, their expansion plans, their hiring because of the significant uncertainty that that introduced into the economy," she said.

It's only gotten worse with the changing start dates for the threatened tariffs, she said.

"That kind of environment just really prohibits making big and bold investments in your business when you don't know whether your biggest customer is going to be stable or not, and what prices you'll be facing there."

Gary Keenan, the president of K-Line Construction in Woodstock, said concern is high among his employees at K-Line.

"You know, 'Will we have a job?,'" Keenan said. "Will there be cuts in numbers? Will there be cuts in pay?' And we don't have any answers for those."  

Keenan said his business does a lot of post-storm restoration, not just in the Maritimes, but also in the United States, so he worries about how the hurdles his business has cleared for border crossings would be affected. 

And, he said K-Line is also involved in highway construction, signing and lighting, with most materials coming from the U.S

"I've seen hard times in my 45 years of business, a lot of economic challenges, but not outright economic warfare," Keenan said.

"We're going to give it our all, because we didn't start out without understanding that there would be challenges, and we've dealt with them as they come head on, and we'll continue to do it.

"But I really don't know, I don't know how to fight this fight."

Holt said that with the threat of tariffs still looming, it's difficult to build a budget based on a forecast economic growth.

"We usually look to a whole team of forecasters … we usually take an average of all of their projections," Holt said.

"But given the volatility and the significant impact that the threat of tariffs has had on those projections, not knowing whether there will be tariffs in place means we're talking a significant percentage of GDP swing that dramatically affects the top line for budget for the province.

"So it's a really challenging situation."