Ontario cabinet ministers urged to trumpet trade with US in Trump era
Posted Feb 10, 2017 02:36:55 PM.
Last Updated Feb 10, 2017 03:57:03 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TORONTO – Ontario cabinet ministers have been armed with a sheet of talking points to promote Ontario trade with the United States in President Donald Trump’s protectionist era.
The sheet of Ontario-U.S. economic tidbits was done up by the Ministry of Intergovernmental Affairs, of which Premier Kathleen Wynne is the minister, and handed out to cabinet the day before Trump’s inauguration.
Economic Development Minister Brad Duguid says global uncertainty around the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement and talk of Buy America policies is “unsettling” and Ontario shouldn’t be “naive to the fact that there are some risks involved in that.”
He says it’s very important that the Trump administration is aware of how relevant an unfettered border with Ontario is to American jobs.
Duguid says the auto parts supply chain is so integrated that the average vehicle crosses the Ontario-U.S. border seven times before it is completed.
Ontario is the top export destination of 20 states and more than US$800 million in goods are traded between the two jurisdictions each day.
