Couillard in seduction mode

Photo Agence QMI, Simon Clark
The prime minister Couillard will meet the governors of Connecticut, Vermont and Maine.

Patrick Bellerose

Saturday, 26 August 2017 17:54

UPDATE
Saturday, 26 August 2017 17:54

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ÎLE-DU-PRINCE-ÉDOUARD | The prime minister Philippe Couillard will multiply the meetings with american officials on Sunday and Monday in Charlottetown to raise awareness about the importance of the NAFTA, that the president Trump threatens to tear them apart.

Philippe Couillard will have the annual meeting with the premiers of eastern Canada and the governors of New England to hammer home the importance of cross-border trade.

This will include private interviews with the three governors present (Connecticut, Vermont and Maine), as well as with the chargé d’affaires of the embassy of the United States, in Canada, Elizabeth Moore Aubin.

The spokesman Philippe Couillard, Harold Fortin, explained that these meetings are “in all the efforts being made since the arrival of the new u.s. administration” to defend the jobs in the province.

Message to the Americans

Since the election of Donald Trump, the government Couillard struggles to convince Americans that the Quebec and the U.s. are each other of the opening of the borders.

“It is a work ongoing at several levels, whether it be with senators, with representatives of the Congress, with governors,” stresses Harold Fortin.

Quebec has conducted 24 ministerial missions in the United States since last January.

The government Couillard has also mobilized the heads of corporations and the large unions in quebec in order to carry the message of Quebec to their american counterparts.

New threat

Last week, president Donald Trump has threatened again to withdraw the U.s. from NAFTA if he were to be unable to get a better understanding.

“I don’t think we can come to an agreement, he launched at a rally in Phoenix. Ultimately, I think that we will eventually cancel the NAFTA agreement. “

In spite of everything, Québec continues to believe that the three countries will be able to reach a new negotiated agreement.

“There is what Mr. Trump says, and there are people at the table of negotiations “, commented the minister of international Relations and Francophonie, Christine St-Pierre, last week.