By Timothy Gardner and Arathy Somasekhar
HOUSTON (Reuters) – Alberta Energy Minister Brian Jean said on Tuesday he had provided the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump several options to de-escalate a trade war with Canada.
He said his provincial government, which represents the bulk of Canada’s oil industry, respected Ontario’s decision this week to impose retaliatory tariffs on its electricity exports to the U.S., but was taking a different approach by trying to ease tensions.
Ontario’s government on Tuesday later announced it would freeze the tariff plan pending talks with the U.S.
“We want to de-escalate the situation,” Jean told reporters at the CERAWeek conference in Houston. “We’ve provided them several options on how we can de-escalate this situation, how we can work together to benefit their long-term goal, which is to help their citizens … have less expensive oil and gas.”
He said the “truth is” that the U.S. has bought Alberta oil and gas at a discount for years and that U.S. refineries engineered to run on Canadian crude cannot quickly re-tool to process oil from other places.
Canadian officials have said the tariff dispute with Washington provides a fresh reason for Canada to find ways of getting its crude oil to new markets.
The Canadian energy industry has proposed several major oil pipelines in the last decade from Alberta to the country’s east and west coasts, but has faced opposition from provincial and local interests along their routes. Only one expansion project, Trans Mountain, was completed.
Ontario’s energy minister Stephen Lecce was more defiant about Trump’s tariffs, saying at CERAWeek that the trade war has the potential to ignite the “total breakdown” of inter-provincial trade barriers.
Jean said Alberta should “look seriously” in the Asia-Pacific area.
When pressed on what options there are to de-escalate Jean had a message for Washington: “Drop your tariffs and let’s get back to business.”
(Reporting by Timothy Gardner and Arathy Somasekar; Writing by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Chris Reese and David Gregorio)
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