Secure ties now or risk being left behind

Premier Wab Kinew is expected to announce the appointment of a provincial trade representative based out of Washington, D.C., next week, to fulfil a promise he made early this year.

Experts say the trade rep shouldn’t be a politician or a diplomat, but someone who knows Manitoba industry and trade and can build long-term relationships while finding ways to navigate the rocky shoals of U.S. protectionism and President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Since December, Kinew has said Manitoba must have its own full-time trade officer working in the heart of the U.S. capital — preferably at the Canadian Embassy — where a few other provinces have someone working on their behalf to strengthen trade ties.

After Trump was sworn in for his second term as U.S. president in January, he launched a trade war against Canada and other trading partners, imposed punishing tariffs, and threatened to annex Canada.

In March, Manitoba pulled U.S. booze from Liquor Mart shelves in retaliation. On April 28, the Liberals were elected and Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada’s “old relationship” based on integration with the U.S. “is over.”

It’s more important than ever for Manitoba to have a voice in Washington and the ear of Canada’s ambassador to the U.S., Kirsten Hillman, say Winnipeg business and trade experts and a former top politician and diplomat.

“This is a necessary step,” said Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce president Loren Remillard. Manitoba must start building relationships in Washington now or get left behind, he said.

“It’s a strategic step, and it goes beyond just the current relationship with the Trump administration, it extends to future administrations,” said Remillard, who will host U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra at a chamber event in Winnipeg on July 29.

“Relate first, negotiate second,” said Gary Doer, who was Manitoba’s premier from 1999 to 2009, and Canada’s ambassador to the U.S. from 2009 to 2016.

Doer said provincial trade representatives conducted “excellent work” out of the Canadian Embassy at that time, fostering trade and cross-border relationships.

They benefited from having their office in the embassy on Pennsylvania Avenue — which gave them access to the Canadian government and put them in proximity to U.S. power, he said.

“You’re working with federal bureaucracy, but not being completely dependent upon it, by having your own set of people with skills and connections when you’re dealing with Washington,” Doer said.

Some question the value of Manitoba setting up shop in the U.S. capital, where there are so many competing interests and while the president has ditched trade deals and rules.

“What are we going to get out of that?” asked Prof. Barry Prentice at the University of Manitoba’s Asper School of Business.

Trade deals, such as the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement signed by Trump in 2018 during his first term, have since been undone by Trump, whose tariffs in 2025 are being challenged for violating the North American free trade pact.

“How many lobbyists are there in Washington, D.C. and how loud would our voice be to try and get anything done?” Prentice asked.

Manitoba’s time and money may be better spent focusing on states with which it does the most trade, in the U.S. Midwest and those to the south along the mid-continental corridor, he said.

“If I were going to invest money to expand trade, I might be more interested in Mexico than trying to talk to Washington,” Prentice said.

Meantime, Canada is paying the price for taking U.S. trade for granted, said supply chain management expert Robert Parsons.

“We were so lulled into being dependent upon the Americans, we have not done enough to address how we as a country can remain independent with different trading partners,” he said. “We have been putting it off and kicking it down the road for such a long time,” said Parsons, who has a doctorate in engineering and teaches at the Asper School of Business.

Manitoba needs a U.S. trade rep to be strategic and in place for the long haul to know “the devil of the details of everything going on, so that we know how to appropriately react.”

It shouldn’t be a political patronage appointment, Parsons said.

The trade rep should be someone with business experience, “who understands trade and the implications of that trade to companies in our province — a senior person who’s had broad-based involvement with industries across and within Manitoba,” he said.

Remillard, who was part of a provincial trade delegation to the U.S. capital last year, said Manitoba needs to be there so it’s not left behind as other provinces forge connections on Capitol Hill, and “connect with and help shape the Canadian voice that our ambassador and her team are bringing to their meetings in Washington.”

Other provinces with a presence in D.C. “have the ear” of Canada’s ambassador on a regular basis, he said. “(She) is very aware of what’s going on in Quebec, Ontario, B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, because those provinces make it a point of keeping the ambassador apprised of very specific issues and opportunities in their jurisdictions,” Remillard said.

“That’s the opportunity we’re losing without a representative in Washington and one that we’re correcting by having this person.”

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca