{"id":867939,"date":"2026-08-22T23:48:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T23:48:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/867939\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T23:48:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T23:48:22","slug":"alberta-premier-urges-return-to-trade-talks-calls-u-s-terms-untenable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/867939\/","title":{"rendered":"Alberta premier urges return to trade talks, calls U.S. terms ‘untenable’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

Listen to this article<\/p>\n

Estimated 4 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith hopes federal negotiators will return to the table after the collapse of trade talks in Washington triggered a 50 per cent tariff on Canadian exports.<\/p>\n

About $1.5 billion of Alberta\u2019s $188 billion trade volume with the U.S. faces disruption, Smith said on her radio show Your Province, Your Premier Saturday morning. But she also said that the last minute demands from American negotiators were \u201cuntenable\u201d and \u201ctoo painful\u201d for Canada to accept.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope that they can get back to the table to negotiate something that\u2019s more fair,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m really hopeful that some constructive conversations begin because, boy, the tariff war is painful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith spoke moments after Prime Minister Mark Carney announced Canada is imposing dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs on the United States starting Sept. 8. She said she hopes negotiations will resume, and a deal can be signed before that date.<\/p>\n

Carney said during a press conference in Ottawa that American negotiators wanted to restrict Canada\u2019s ability to sign trade deals with other countries. He also said the Canadian automotive industry would have suffered under the deal, and that there were objections to Canadian subsidies for French cultural programs.<\/p>\n

“We cannot accept what they’ve offered, and we will not give what they’ve asked,” Carney said, adding that the United States \u201casked too much and offered too little.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ACanada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc and chief trade negotiator Janice Charette listen as Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks about Canada’s response to new U.S. tariffs during a news conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Saturday, Aug. 22, 2026. (Patrick Doyle\/The Canadian Press)<\/p>\n

Smith said she was surprised to hear about the proposed trade restrictions and said Alberta has been trying to double exports to countries outside the U.S.<\/p>\n

However, she was cautious on retaliatory tariffs towards American goods, adding she has no interest in banning imports of U.S. alcohol. Alberta and Saskatchewan are the only provinces without a ban.<\/p>\n

She also worried about the impact a trade war would have on farmers and agricultural equipment, and warned Alberta\u2019s furniture makers and honey producers are particularly exposed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know emotionally it feels good to retaliate, I get that. But\u2026when retaliation happens, it means that everybody who is buying products from the United States are now going to face upwards of 50 per cent tariffs,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Smith will meet with her cabinet Tuesday to review the scope of the new trade measures, review federal relief proposals and discuss next steps.<\/p>\n

Impacts to small businesses ‘significant’<\/p>\n

Alberta\u2019s major exports of natural gas and oil won\u2019t be impacted too severely by these latest tariffs, said Smith.<\/p>\n

Kayode Southwood, a senior policy analyst for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), told CBC News on Saturday that small businesses across Canada and the province will still suffer \u201cimmediate and significant effects.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roughly 40 per cent of Alberta\u2019s small businesses export to the U.S. and half import American goods, he noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis round of tariffs is going to be much more impactful than previous rounds,\u201d he said. \u201cAny retaliatory tariffs that are applied by the Canadian government will hit those Alberta businesses hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ManA worker takes away American made alcohol from the shelves at a BC Liquor store in Vancouver, B.C., Monday, March 10, 2025. (Ben Nelms\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Calgary Chamber of Commerce president Deborah Yedlin told CBC News she supports Carney\u2019s decision to end negotiations, but warned up to 100,000 jobs across Canada are vulnerable without a resolution.<\/p>\n

She said she hopes both sides return to negotiations soon, but also framed the trade breakdown as an opportunity for Canada to re-evaluate its interprovincial commerce and expand its international trade relationships.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that we have free trade agreements with 51 countries covering 60 per cent of the global GDP, but yet 33 per cent is what we\u2019ve been exporting,\u201d said Yedlin.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to make sure that we make the most of those trade agreements, but at the same time it means that we have to really focus on building the infrastructure to get our goods to those new markets.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":867940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44],"class_list":["post-867939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=867939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/867940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=867939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=867939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=867939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}