Smith touts Alberta lithium as CUSMA review looms
With a July 1 deadline approaching for the Canada-U.S.-Mexico trade deal, the premier highlighted critical minerals as key to Alberta's prosperity.
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Premier Danielle Smith told business leaders Monday that lithium and other critical minerals are pivotal to Alberta's future in North American trade as bureaucrats prepare to rehash the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA).
Smith's comments came during a keynote at the New North America Initiative summit at the BMO Centre in Calgary. The University of Calgary's School of Public Policy, which launched the initiative last year in partnership with the Alberta Government, received $6.5 million to examine the shifting trade relationship between Canada, the U.S., and Mexico.
The summit runs Monday and Tuesday, arriving just two weeks before a July 1 deadline for officials in the three countries to determine whether to extend CUSMA for an additional 16 years.
Smith said free trade has been central to North America's economic prosperity and called the Canada-U.S. relationship one of the most successful international partnerships in history. Alberta exported more than $150 billion worth of goods to the U.S. last year.
However, on-again, off-again tariffs are damaging the relationship, Smith said. Those duties have driven up the cost of food, fuel, vehicles, housing, and many other products on both sides of the border.
"For countries as closely connected as we are, it's in our national interest to repair things as quickly as we can because our nations are better off when we're working together," Smith said.