And obviously the Canadian tariffs are a huge issue in Maine because our economy is so intertwined with Canada, but I've been able to make some progress there as well. Are you worried though that that issue, the Canadian tariffs could cost you this race? I don't believe that the Canadian tariff issue is going to um decide the race, even though I'm very unhappy, as are my constituents.
The president's trade war on Canada hammering some of Maine's signature industries. Maine and Canada, one market. Canada is Maine's largest trading partner, second largest for the United States.
It is a fully integrated economy. We exchange agricultural products, fisheries and crustations, pulp and paper, wood, machinery and equipment, electronics frequently in a supply chain that goes back and forth several times for finishing and processing or values added on both sides. And she goes on to say the tariffs without exemptions that are still in effect will lead to higher costs for main families and uncertainty for businesses.
Those tariffs specifically impacting things like steel, home appliances, dairy, most alcoholic beverages, motorcycles, agricultural equipment, and forest products. Read that back and notice who wrote it. Not Ottawa.
Barumin Senator calling Maine and Canada one market with a supply line that crosses the border several times. Notice what she did not say. She did not say the tariff was working.
Northern border communities rely heavily on Canadian rock salt to keep winter roads safe. Now, Senator Susan Collins says exempting those two items was something she lobbied for. She says in part, quote, "I mentioned in a letter to the administration that Frenchville, a small main town on the Canadian border, would incur $10,000 in extra cost for roads, threatening the town's ability to provide municipal services.
" I also shared that I had heard from Maine readymix cement company owners, one of whom told me his company would pay $150,000 each month because of this tariff. The Trump administration agreed to swap these items for new duties on allterrain vehicles, certain cheeses and motorboats. That is the part worth slowing down for.
Two items came off the list. Three went on allterrain vehicles, certain cheeses and motorboats. She did not win a smaller tariff.
She won a different one pointed somewhere else. Um I've used the example of Prescal which says that they would have had unexpected additional costs of between 60 and $65,000. Who's that get passed on to?
The property owners in that community. So it further increases their tax. And what municipalities all over the state were telling me is they were going to have to cut back on their municipal services because they can't have unsafe roads and you need road salt.
And for those who use concrete that affects so many small businesses. So follow the bill to the end. A duty is paid at the border.
The town pays the duty and the town raises the tax. That is her chain, not ours. And the people at the end of it never signed up for a trade war.
The president of the New England Canada Business Council, as well as other main leaders, are continuing to press the Trump administration to get back to the negotiating table and reach a deal. Um, you've been very public about your successful efforts to exempt things like road salt from the tariffs on Canada. Yesterday, I asked Troy Jackson about this.
He said, quote, "Thanks for the road salt. " But he didn't seem very enthused. He said, "There's more you could be doing.
We are not picking a side in a Senate race, and this is not our election. But listen to what neither of them disputes. That the duty raised costs in Maine towns, that it is still raising them.
" Their argument is only about how much one senator moved. Now, obviously, I'd like to see more, but that's a good start. Jackson mocking that response.
Yeah. Thank you for the road salt. And uh that makes a huge difference.
And that I think this really sums up Troy that he's so dismissive of additional costs being imposed on our towns and cities shows that he doesn't understand who ultimately pays for those costs. It's the people who live in those towns and cities. Hold that sentence still for a second.
She is saying a cost put on a town lands on the people in it. That is true of any duty, no matter who signs it. She applied that test to her opponent.
It applies just as cleanly to the order itself. A new CNN poll has this warning sign for Collins. Roughly twothirds of likely Maine voters disapprove of Trump's job performance and almost half say their vote for Senate would be to oppose the president.
So I'm going to keep working on the other tariffs as well. But I am very happy to have achieved success on both the road salt and the concrete because they do make a difference. So here is where it lands.
One market, in her words, two items moved off a list, and three moved on. A town budget, a tax bill, and a promise to keep working. That is a trade war scene from inside the state that trades with us most.
Here is the thing I keep coming back to. A Republican senator on camera described Maine and Canada as one market. Her own written statement called it a fully integrated economy with goods crossing the border several times before anything is finished.
That is not a Canadian argument. It is how the state next door describes itself. Then look at what she was able to do with that.
She wrote to the administration about a town called Frenchville. Um $10,000 it had never budgeted for. Ain't no girls.
About a ready mix company facing $150,000 a month. About press 60 to 65,000 um landing on property owners and she won. Two items came off the list.
Then read the next sentence in the same report. The administration agreed to swap those items for new duties on all terrain vehicles, certain cheeses and motorboats. The total did not shrink.
It moved. That is the honest shape of this. Not a defeat and not a victory either.
One senator with real influence moved two lines and left steel appliances, dairy, alcohol, motorcycles, farm equipment, and uh forest products exactly where they were. Her own words again. I am going to keep working on the other tariffs.
And I will say the fair part too. It's she has been one of the few in her party to say any of this out loud and Maine's own business council is asking for a deal rather than a fight. We are not going to pretend she has been silent because she has not been.
Minguing. We are not going to pretend she has been silent because she has not been. What I think is worth watching in the coming weeks is narrow and any of it could move, whether a third item ever comes off, whether the swap list likely grows again, and whether anyone in Washington starts describing this the way Maine does as one market rather than two countries.
One question.
