Philippe Couillard to Washington to maintain pressure on the United States

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Thursday, 22-feb-2018 16:41

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Thursday, 22-feb-2018 16:50

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The prime minister Philippe Couillard wants to keep the pressure on the Americans to facilitate trade.

In an exclusive interview with TVA News, Philippe Couillard has said that it wants to send a powerful message, in company of his counterpart in ontario, Kathleen Wynne, in the framework of the National Governors Association in Washington, during his third visit to Washington.

“A strong message, because 60 % of the economy of Canada is Ontario and Quebec, two-thirds of Canada’s trade with the United States, it is the Quebec and Ontario”, recalled the prime minister.

At the dawn of the 7th round of negotiations of the NAFTA in Mexico, the discourse of Quebec the same. We want to remind Americans of the importance of economic exchanges between Canada and the United States. Trade, which, in fact, have amounted to $ 81 billion in 2016, while 1,000 american companies have a subsidiary in Québec.

“Our geopolitical relationship is one of the most important and most valuable in the world. It is not necessary to weaken, it is necessary to modernize,” argued Mr. Couillard.

Of the hot topics

Then that arm of iron in the folder of the timber continues, the prime minister will take the opportunity to remind Americans of the consequences of a rise in taxes.

“Everything that you are going to get to do is increase the price of houses in the United States to the detriment of consumers and that is exactly what is happening, he notes. The u.s. taxes on wood are absorbed by the american consumer, and it costs a lot more expensive to build a house now before they come into force.”

On the topic of the CSeries, the first minister says that Bombardier has not acted too quickly by disposing of its aircraft to Airbus. But the american Boeing, has she not pushed Bombardier into the arms of Airbus by imposing anti-dumping duties exorbitant on the CSeries?

“When I met the Americans before this story, I mentioned that everything that they were going to succeed to do, is to encourage a new competitor, because we, we were looking for a strategic partner,” he stressed. Given the attitude of Boeing, the strategic partner would necessarily have to be european or asian and this was not in the interest of american industry.”

Philippe Couillard will also benefit from his stay to meet with the governors of Massachusetts, Vermont and Maine to discuss the project, Northern Pass, the most important project for the sale of energy abroad in Quebec’s history.

“I want to sell our electricity, it has large amounts of energy available,” he notes.

The project, Northern Pass could bring in $ 10 billion in Quebec. But where is the project currently?

“On the principle, it is energy in quebec which will be sold in New England. I hope it will be up to New York, because it is another process which can be done in parallel. The question is to know what transmission route will be used.”

The case of Donald Trump

When is it his relationship with the controversial american president Donald Trump?

“I will be careful not to become me, the prime minister of Quebec, the political opposition to Mr. Trump. Is it that I share his ideas on several themes such as the environment or the firearms? No, of course not.”

If Mr. Couillard believes that its role is not to confront the president on his policies, he intends to use his visit to strengthen economic ties between the two countries.

“I’m here to speak on behalf of the workers, it is my priority. Even when it will get better and that the situation is stabilized, we will continue to be with the Americans.”

From January 2017, Philippe Couillard met with governors and united states senators to 57 times.