P.E.I.'s Wayne Easter on Trump inauguration and whether we should worry

Malpeque MP Wayne Easter, co-chair of the Canada-U.S. interparliamentary group, is preparing to meet with the incoming Trump administration in Washington this April. He says the most pressing issue is North American trade, and how Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. can work together in positioning themselves in the global economy.

• Donald Trump's inauguration: Follow CBC's live coverage as new presidency begins

Easter stopped by CBC News:Compass on the day before Donald Trump becomes the 45th president of the United States.

Should Canadians be worried?

Let's not get excited, see what rolls out here. I know there's lots of, I could call the danger signals, the whole attack on NAFTA, on trade issues, letter from the dairy industry in the United States saying to Trump to go after Canada in terms of what they consider trade violations by our dairy industry, which has got nothing to do with the truth.

So there's lots to worry about. But don't overreact. We need to take time, look at the players as they're being sworn in and we'll see where we are in a month.

Trump says NAFTA is a disaster. What do you say to that?

Nine million American jobs depend on trade with Canada. I think what happens in terms of the political rhetoric in the United States is they're saying companies have moved their jobs offshore to where labour is cheaper and environmental standards are lower. That is, in fact, true to a certain extent but also it's the innovation, the technological change that's taking jobs away as well. And so you have to look at it in its whole context.

How should Trump be viewing NAFTA?

What I suggest Trump should be doing is looking at how, in the North American context, Mexico, Canada, the United States, in terms of our supply chains we can compete against the rest of the world. That's where we should be, but they're getting into this internal fight within the arrangement of NAFTA itself and that could spell problems.

Much of his anti-trade rhetoric has been directed toward Mexico. Is it naive to think it won't affect Canada in terms of trade?

Terribly naive. Anything that's done on trade is certainly going to have an impact on Canada. The American administration is clearly going to be looking at country origin, where the original part or whatever comes from and what impact does that have on American jobs. And there's all kinds of cases where those supply chains, where part of an item is made in Canada, more of it's made in the United States, it may come back to Canada to be finished, whatever. Those create economic activity and jobs in both countries so there's a lot involved here.

Are you going to the inauguration?

No, I'm not. I very seriously looked at going but I really thought the cost of getting there to, you can rub a few shoulders, but the cost of getting there, of staying there, was a little prohibitive. [But] we'll have three cabinet ministers there.

When does the work begin?

I do associate with quite a number of Republican senators and the Congressional representatives in the United States. Democrats, as well. We will be at the earliest opportunity, probably in April, a delegation of us will go down to D.C. to talk to as many of them as we can. We need to continue to build that relationship and need to work at all facets from the Prime Minister's Office to the executive branches of government in both houses in Canada and the United States.

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