Western Standard - March 14, 2025


Smith brings down the house in Houston talking down tariff threat


Episode Stats


Length

5 minutes

Words per minute

182.89813

Word count

1,088

Sentence count

74


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Learn English with Jim Fitterly, Danielle Smith, Susan Bonet, and Paul Broun. They discuss the latest trade tensions between the United States and Canada, including the latest round of 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum and 10% on energy resources.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
00:00:00.000 So, great discussion group here. Danielle Smith is the Premier of Alberta.
00:00:07.440 Not often noted, Canada's world's fourth largest oil producer in the world, and 85% of Canada's oil comes from Alberta.
00:00:16.800 Jim Fitterly, no, I'm going down, Susan Bonet, going wrong, is the Secretary of Economic Development in Louisiana,
00:00:23.980 and it is noted that 61% of U.S. LNG exports leave the state of Louisiana.
00:00:31.220 And, of course, our friend Jim Fitterly, who is the Chair and CEO of Dow,
00:00:35.440 which is one of the world's great materials and petrochemical companies.
00:00:39.300 So, we're going to have a very good discussion this morning. There's a lot to talk about.
00:00:42.880 I can't resist the fact I'm required to start by asking Danielle, what do you think about tariffs?
00:00:51.300 I don't like them.
00:00:52.600 I would love for us to go back to the kind of tariff-free relationship on most markets that we've enjoyed historically,
00:01:00.260 since the NAFTA agreement, and, of course, what we heard the U.S. President say in his first term,
00:01:07.100 the best trade agreement ever, the USMCA.
00:01:10.560 There's always a couple of little skirmishes that we have in there,
00:01:13.540 but even with the latest escalation and de-escalation of yesterday,
00:01:18.220 one thing I think we should take to heart is there's a few things not included in the list of irritants,
00:01:24.560 and one of them is, of course, energy.
00:01:26.640 And I think that includes not only oil and gas, but also critical minerals.
00:01:32.020 And so I think once we get through this little bit of a rough patch,
00:01:35.840 we can really talk about how Alberta can contribute to U.S. energy dominance.
00:01:40.920 We think that the message is important.
00:01:42.920 We think it's kind of fortress North America.
00:01:45.520 We think that we can backfill with our products in the United States to maintain low consumer prices
00:01:51.120 and also enable the U.S. to export more internationally.
00:01:56.260 And then we're very seized by the discussion about winning the AI race.
00:02:00.800 I don't think any of us want to see a communist totalitarian regime become a world global leader in AI.
00:02:09.540 So we're hoping that we'll be able to contribute to that discussion, too.
00:02:13.000 One of the patrons whose papers is running a daily tally of what's happening to the tariffs.
00:02:17.960 What's the current tariff from oil from Upward?
00:02:21.180 Well, let me check Truth Social because it might have changed in 10 minutes that I haven't been monitored.
00:02:26.720 But I think the current tally is that we have 25% tariffs on steel, 25% tariffs on aluminum,
00:02:33.680 and then those products that do not qualify for the USMCA exemption have 10% on energy resources and 25% on everyone else.
00:02:41.300 So what are your barriers of oil?
00:02:42.980 Any – well, I can tell you China's not dumping into the Alberta market secretly to send oil into the American market.
00:02:49.260 There was a bit of a paperwork issue that our companies had.
00:02:52.060 There was no reason to register.
00:02:53.920 And so now there is – and so I would imagine that they've all called their lawyers and they're in compliance.
00:02:57.980 So I wouldn't expect very much more oil and gases tariffed at all.
00:03:01.300 But I mean, is there a 10%?
00:03:02.700 No, it would be anything that's USMCA compliant has that reprieve until April the 2nd,
00:03:09.300 at which point where – I mean, if you listen to Energy Secretary, Chris Wright,
00:03:12.840 I think he was talking about it going down to zero before the latest round of escalation.
00:03:17.880 So just since you come from the north of that border, what's been the political impact?
00:03:25.000 You're seen as kind of on the right side of the political spectrum.
00:03:28.660 There are others on the left side.
00:03:29.780 Well, the Liberals under – I will be – okay.
00:03:34.120 The Liberals under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau were heading not only to defeat but near wipeouts.
00:03:38.560 That's what we were talking about.
00:03:40.100 And now because of the esprit de corps that has been generated by the attacks,
00:03:44.580 it looks like they might win the next election under their new leader, Mark Carney,
00:03:48.020 who's even worse for the energy sector, in my opinion, than the outgoing Prime Minister.
00:03:54.280 So I think it may have had an equal and opposite effect, counter to what the President was expecting.
00:04:00.940 But it's going to be a very hard-fought election for who we thought was going to be the leader,
00:04:05.980 the new Prime Minister up here, Paul, yes.
00:04:08.160 Is there – has there been a cohesion within Canada and reaction to this?
00:04:13.320 I would say that I'm – maybe I'm good cop and others are bad cop.
00:04:17.380 I have a great relationship with some of the members of the administration.
00:04:21.540 Because I'm more conservative, there's a lot of other issues that we find alignment on.
00:04:26.660 And I would rather get – be diplomatic and try to get to whatever the long-term relationship is going to be.
00:04:32.900 I don't think you blow up a hundred-year trade history with two credible allies over some temporary problems.
00:04:39.580 I think, yes, we have to get through them.
00:04:41.300 We have to identify the issues.
00:04:42.980 But I'm playing the long game here.
00:04:45.020 I want to build two million barrels more per day of pipeline access from Canada to the U.S.
00:04:50.340 So, if we might not be able to start –
00:04:52.260 Two million more.
00:04:52.800 Yeah, we might not be able to start that conversation today.
00:04:55.860 But I hope we can start this soon.
00:04:57.760 One last question, then we'll switch to it.
00:04:59.700 Any greater pressure to have a pipeline capacity to be seen?
00:05:04.080 The – but, see, yes.
00:05:06.020 I mean, one of the – we've got two futures ahead of us.
00:05:10.700 One future is we keep on fighting with our American friends for the next two years.
00:05:14.660 And Congress switches.
00:05:16.820 Now we can't even have a pipeline conversation anymore.
00:05:19.480 And then the four-year term is up and we haven't made any progress.
00:05:22.620 Or we can start that conversation now and get pipelines built.
00:05:26.780 The other option, of course, if we continue to fight for four years, is that there are a number of different pipeline options emerging in Canada.
00:05:35.180 Three different pipeline proposals to the west coast and British Columbia.
00:05:39.000 At least one up north into the Northwest Territories in Nunavut.
00:05:43.600 Churchill, which is in Manitoba.
00:05:45.980 James Bay.
00:05:46.980 And then over on Eastern Canada.
00:05:48.340 So there's at least six or seven projects that are emerging in Canada in the event we're not able to come to a partnership agreement with the U.S.
00:05:56.060 Thank you, Danielle.
00:05:56.820 Thank you, Danielle.