New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt would still like to see an Atlantic Canada free trade zone and says her government is working with colleagues in the other three Atlantic provinces to establish it amid ongoing United States tariffs.
Holt discussed the proposed free trade zone during her weekly update on the tariff situation on Thursday. She first called for the open zone – between New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador – last month.
The proposed zone would allow for free trade of goods, services and labour among the four provinces.
“We each have similar situations,” Holt said. “We all agree on things like labour mobility. We just need to look at some of those specific nuances of our economies and agree what is in and out.”
On Wednesday New Brunswick signed a memorandum of understanding with Ontario to remove trade barriers between the two provinces. Ontario is New Brunswick’s second-largest trading partner.
“We need to knock down interprovincial trade barriers and yesterday we took steps to do that,” Holt said. “Labour mobility is where New Brunswick is leading.”
In March the Holt government introduced amendments to the “Fair Registration Practices in Regulated Professions Act” that, if passed, would allow workers in regulated professions to start working in new jurisdictions during the registration process.
“I think everyone is (in) a little different place about how fast they move or how they approach it,” said Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston. “Everybody is moving at their own pace, but I think everybody wants to get to a place where there’s certainly less exemptions.”
CUSMA problems
During the Thursday news conference, Holt noted some New Brunswick businesses have been “dinged” with tariffs for not being fully compliant with the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) when crossing the border.
Many Canadian goods are exempt from the ongoing U.S. tariffs if they are compliant with the CUSMA rules of origin, which determine how much of production must occur in North America.
Holt said Opportunities New Brunswick will be offering webinars to help businesses understand topics like location of origin paperwork.
“Businesses have to make sure they can show they are CUSMA compliant,” she said. “Borders are being very strict about demonstrating CUSMA compliance. Businesses are realizing they have to be compliant or they’ll be hit with a significant tariff.”
-With files from CTV Atlantic’s Nick Moore.
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