Alberta government to press ahead with response to U.S. tariffs, says Premier Danielle Smith

The Alberta government will move forward with its tariff response, Premier Danielle Smith announced late Friday, at the end of a tumultuous week in which the United States introduced steep tariffs then pulled back on them two days later.

"Yesterday's presidential executive order mandating the pause is unclear as to which goods it actually applies to and what legal forms and requirements will be needed to qualify," Smith said in an emailed statement on Friday afternoon. 

"The Government of Alberta will therefore be moving forward with our tariff response until these questions have been adequately dealt with."

On Wednesday, Alberta announced it would stop buying American alcohol and halt contracting with U.S. companies in response to sweeping tariffs imposed the day before. The measures also included a halt on purchasing VLT machines from the U.S., an expense that amounts to about $100 million annually, Smith said Friday.

In a partial climbdown on Thursday, President Donald Trump said he was pausing tariffs on some Canadian goods until April 2, offering a reprieve from across-the-board 25 per cent tariffs.

Earlier Friday, Smith told an Alberta Municipalities caucus meeting that the province was still sorting through the reprieve. The late afternoon statement provided the result of that review.

"The repeated pausing and unpausing of U.S. tariffs is causing great investment uncertainty and market volatility right across North America, and continues to confuse Canadians and Americans alike," Smith said in the statement.

During her morning speech, Smith said the unpredictability of Trump's plans has already created an "administrative and technical nightmare" for many Alberta operators and exporters reliant on the American supply chain. 

She said she had spoken with a beef exporter in southern Alberta who owed hundreds of thousands of dollars for the three days that tariffs were in place. The reprieve, she added, would require another load of paperwork for products that were not tariffed but are not registered.

"There was no incentive to register before because it was a zero rate," she said. "So businesses are going to have to get in touch with their lawyers to figure out how to file all that paperwork in order to be able to enjoy the zero per cent tariff rate."

She said Albertans and Canadians must remain steadfast in the face of the escalating trade war. Governments need to break down internal trade barriers and encourage consumers across the country to support Canadian businesses, she said.

"We expect things to change very quickly," she said.