Wall heads to Washington to highlight Canada-U.S. Trade

Premier Brad Wall is making his way south of the border to talk trade with members of the Trump Administration.

Wall will be in Washington from April 3-6 and will be meeting with Senators, members of the House of Representatives and senior administration officials. That includes the Secretary of Energy, Rick Perry, and the Secretary of Commerce, Wilbur Ross.

Wall said he will also be meeting with the head of the Environmental Protective Agency (EPA) , Scott Pruitt, to discuss energy independence and coal.

“The EPA has been in the past, even under the previous administration, interested in Boundary Dam Three,” Wall said. “We know that the new president ran on a platform of wanting to ensure that coal continues to be a part of the mix.”

Boundary Dam Three is the coal carbon capture facility located near Estevan.

Wall said they will talk about their expertise with carbon capture technology and maintain a partnership with the states.

Wall will also raise concerns over the “buy America” provision stating all steel used in newly announced pipelines be from America.

“We have a situation where Evraz, for example, has great prospects of new work of pipelines in the United States, new pipelines that if “buy America” is not changed, would preclude Evraz from being a part of.”

Wall will also talk about the importance of NAFTA and how important of a trade partner Canada is to the states.

Canada was the only country among America’s five biggest trade partners it had a trade surplus with.

The states is also the Saskatchewan’s largest customer, counting for about half of the province’s total exports and shipments. It was valued at $12.6 billion in 2016.