Canadian leaders 'united' following P.E.I.'s 'positive' trip to U.S., premier says

Premier Dennis King is back on Prince Edward Island after visiting the northeastern United States and Ottawa this week to discuss president-elect Donald Trump's threat of 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian exports. 

"The efforts we put forward with our trade mission and with our Island delegation down to the northeast of the U.S. was positive," King told CBC News: Compass host Louise Martin on Thursday. 

"I think we left a really good taste in the mouths of Americans with our desire to continue our trade relationship unobstructed and uninterrupted."

On the heels of that trip, King met with the premiers and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who he said are "united as a country."

P.E.I. premier on looming threat of U.S. tariffs

23 hours ago

Duration 9:14

Premier Dennis King is back on P.E.I. after a trade mission to the U.S., plus a meeting with his provincial counterparts and Trudeau in Ottawa. He tells CBC News: Compass host Louise Martin about how the province plans to navigate what he calls an uncertain time.

Retaliatory tariffs 

King said Canadian leaders share the hope that they can avoid tariffs altogether, but they did discuss what Canada can do as a country to retaliate if necessary. 

"I think everybody would be in agreement around that table that we don't want to retaliate," he said. "A trade war doesn't benefit Canada, doesn't benefit the U.S. It actually benefits countries like China and others, which nobody should want."

Canada's goal is to identify the areas where "the United States needs to leverage from us for their day-to-day success," King said.

For P.E.I., those areas include agriculture, seafood, bioscience and aerospace, King said.

But those retaliatory ideas are all still hypothetical, he said.

"There was never a conversation about 'this is what we're going to do and when,' he said. "Let's get ready and hope we don't ever have to use the bullets that we're putting in our chamber." 

Under the Team Canada banner, there's a notion that "if everything is on the table, everything is on the table," King said, adding there will need to be further conversations to figure out how that breaks down, particularly if one jurisdiction is more affected than others.

While Alberta Premier Danielle Smith did not sign the joint communique signed by all the other provincial leaders after they met in Ottawa, King said he doesn't think it's fair to interpret that as meaning she doesn't support retaliatory action. 

"There is going to be continuing conversation from all premiers," he said.

Living in limbo

While the leaders discussed possibilities, King said it's hard to know what will happen come Monday, when president-elect Donald Trump will officially be sworn in as president.

"We don't know what the tariffs would be, if there will even be tariffs or how long they would be and what they would be on," he said. 

With that uncertainty, it's hard to predict what the direct effects on Islanders will be, King said.

"I don't want to scare people because I don't know what the… end result might be, but if markets are impacted to the point where lobsters are $4 a pound, that is a very detrimental impact on every community across P.E.I. come May 1 when the lobster season opens," he said.

King also said the Island's history with potato wart provides a sense of the kind of economic devastation can come with not being able to ship products to the U.S.

"But my hope remains that cooler heads can prevail and this long standing relationship that we have will continue because we need each other," King said. 

The uncertainty of the moment feels like "a bit of limbo," he said. 

"I think if we've learned anything from Trump 1.0, I fear every day for the next four years might be kind of like this. There is an uneasiness here and a discomfort in it for us. So, it's not going to be a whole lot of fun for us here for a while"