REGINA — Premier Scott Moe welcomed delegates to the NASCO Continental Reunion in Regina with a speech pointing to the importance of trade to the three countries represented.
The North American Strategy for Competitiveness annual conference, which ran May 5 to 7 at the Hotel Saskatchewan, included leaders from Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.
The backdrop was continued uncertainty over trade with the Americans and the future of the CUSMA agreement, due to come under review this year.
In his keynote address Wednesday, Moe looked ahead to the coming discussions on the USMCA agreement and acknowledged “it will be a challenging discussion at times but it is one that is worth finding our way towards.”
He said this trade relationship is “by no means a weakness, it is very much a strength" — a reference to comments from Prime Minister Mark Carney about the trade relationship with the U.S. being a weakness.
To make his point, Moe pointed to various examples of integration on both sides of the border. He said the integration has happened for a reason — because it “underpins North America’s food, energy and manufacturing security.”
“So if we truly want to protect this, this security that we have, we have to keep talking. We have to keep engaging,” Moe told the audience.
“We have to keep working together through the challenges that might arise today, and keep our eye on the ball. Keep our eye on what the strategic long game is. Where do we want this relationship to be in three years, five years, and 10 years? Because I would say as we live on this continent together, we do need one another. And we need to work together.”
Moe added that he thought of the North American economy as “essentially a three-legged stool. And that strength of that stool lies in its balance. Even on uneven ground, that stool is balanced.”
“Right now I would say that that ground is a touch uneven at times. It's uneven globally. We're seeing relationships change globally. But that balance, that food security, energy security, manufacturing security, that ability for us to work together is what's going to keep North America strong.”
In speaking to reporters, Moe cited the importance of the conference in advancing trade between the three countries.
“When you have an international conference, and this conference is really put on by the three countries that are signatories to USMCA or CUSMA, there's a lot of action that happens and comes out of these conferences. We're liaisoning industries with relative levels of government in each of our countries.”
He called this a “particularly, I think, impactful conference” for the impact that the members of this conference could have in “further having that conversation between the various levels of governments in our three countries, and the industries that are creating wealth and jobs also in those three countries.”
Many of the themes in Moe’s speech have been ones he has brought up frequently in recent months. In speaking to reporters, Moe emphasized again the “need for us to be very strategic in our actions and what we do, at every level of government and in industries.”
“I've often said, you'll hear some rhetoric through the CUSMA review over the next number of months, in fairness, likely on many sides of the table. It's important for us at whatever level we're at, whether it be in government or industry, to keep our eye on the long game. To keep our eye on the broader trade relationship that we want to achieve — not on the particular discussion of the day, which may at times jeopardize some of that opportunity that we have to get to a free and fair trade deal sooner rather than later.”
As for Moe’s three-legged stool analogy, when asked to elaborate on the “unbalance” being seen right now, Moe answered “well, you name it.”
“I mean, we have a number of wars going on in the world. That would be an unbalance that we haven't had for a while. We've seen major supply chains through the Strait of Hormuz that are being restricted, whether that is impacting gasoline prices, oil supply, or fertilizer for us in the Western world as well. That would create some imbalance and some inflationary pressure. We're at the five-year review point of our CUSMA deal as well, and we've seen those discussions go back and forth with respect to the desire of the U.S. administration and the President to pretty significantly change that trade arrangement like he has with many other countries around the world. That would be an imbalance as well that we haven't had to navigate in the last number of years.”
“However, the strength is in the three legs of that stool. The United States of America is our largest trading partner, and we must keep things in context as we find our way through the days, ultimately to what we hope will be an agreement in the months ahead.”
