New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt is proposing a free-trade zone for goods and services within Atlantic Canada to help the region withstand United States’ tariffs.
In a letter Thursday to the three other Atlantic premiers, Holt says she wants the East Coast to “work freely and seamlessly within one Atlantic market.”
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Holt is asking the other premiers — Nova Scotia’s Tim Houston, Newfoundland and Labrador’s Andrew Furey and P.E.I.’s Rob Lantz — to commit to developing an agreement that would make Atlantic Canada a “free-trade” area.
She says the similar economies of the region would make an Atlantic free-trade deal easier and faster to put together compared to one that encompasses the entire country.
But at least one premier is not sold on the idea.
Asked about Holt’s proposal on Thursday, Houston told reporters he preferred that Nova Scotia participate in Canada-wide free-trade deal as opposed to a regional one.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 21, 2025.
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