HOUSTON—Alberta and Saskatchewan, Canada’s largest natural gas and oil producers, will not retaliate as Ontario did in responding to President Donald Trump’s threats to impose 25-percent tariffs on steel and aluminum beginning March 12 and on all Canadian imports starting April 2, the provinces’ energy ministers said Tuesday.
“We want to de-escalate” the brewing trade war, Alberta Minister of Energy and Minerals Brian Jean told reporters during a press conference at CERAWeek by S&P Global at the Americas Hilton-Houston.
“We want to see the tariffs dropped,” he continued. “If we go back and forth” imposing additional costs on imports and exports between the nations, it will serve no purpose “but to hurt business and people who can’t afford to pay more for energy. We have to think about those folks.”…