Alberta Premier Rejects Using Oil as a Weapon Against Trump

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has dismissed the notion of imposing export taxes on oil shipments to the United States as a response to President Trump's tariffs against Ottawa. Speaking to Global News, Smith stated that such a measure would be detrimental to Canada, as it would provoke a retaliatory tariff response from the U.S., potentially harming the Canadian economy.

This move could devastate the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of Albertans and cripple the economic prospects of neighboring eastern provinces, Smith warned.

Canada currently exports approximately 4 million barrels of crude oil daily to the United States, worth around $80 billion annually. While President Trump has not yet threatened to impose tariffs on Canadian crude oil, Smith suggested that this could change if Canada itself resorts to using oil exports as a weapon in the ongoing tariff dispute.

She also cautioned against threatening to suspend oil exports to the U.S., predicting that the Americans would retaliate by halting gasoline and diesel supplies to refineries in Ontario and Quebec during the fall and winter months.

Smith further warned that the U.S. could replace Canadian crude with Venezuelan crude, which could prove problematic for Alberta as it would lose its largest oil buyer. While this is theoretically possible, with Venezuela's oil output barely exceeding 1 million barrels per day and a significant portion not destined for U.S. refineries, such a substitution appears highly unlikely in the medium term.