‘Openness to an understanding’: Premier returns from trade mission to Washington

Premier Scott Moe saw the trade talks between Canada and the U.S. fall apart recently, and said he quickly firmed up his plans for another trade mission to Washington.

“We thought it would be prudent for us to rely on the relationships that we have with many of our U.S. counterparts … to use the contacts that we have to go down and do what we can in supporting our federal government and the government of the United States of America to come back to that negotiating table,” explained Moe on Wednesday after returning.

Moe said he met with several lawmakers on the short trip, including U.S. Trade Ambassador Jamieson Greer, Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent and Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick.

As far as making progress on the trip, Moe said you won’t know until you return home and let time be the judge.

“We would hope that we were able to instill in that conversation the importance of, not only the trade relationship with Saskatchewan, but more broadly across Canada as well,” the premier said.

Moe repeated what he said about his trade mission to China – that no premier is going to be signing a national trade deal, but he can use his relationships to support the Government of Canada in getting back to the table.

“I think there is a realization (in Washington) that there is and needs to be a path forward, but there’s also a realization that in the short term, there’s some challenging discussions on certain sectors that are going to happen,” Moe said.

He said he thinks there’s an openness in getting a deal in North America, but there might be differences as to whether it’s one deal or multiple deals, and what the negotiation might look like.

“I think there’s an openness to an understanding that we need to get to some level of certainty in the trade environment that we have,” Moe said.

The premier said he spoke with federal ministers and Prime Minister Mark Carney ahead of the trip to talk about sensitivities with the trading partner. He said he didn’t have that opportunity with the previous Prime Minister, and also commended Carney’s work to raise Canada’s credibility internationally.