TORONTO — Three Canadian premiers at odds with Justin Trudeau’s government are in Washington, D.C., today to meet with their American counterparts and make a pitch for increased trade with Canada.

Rookie New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs is leading the mission, which also includes Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe.

The trip, organized through the Council of the Federation, comes as the updated North American Free Trade Agreement — now called the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) — is still awaiting ratification and amid the continued imposition of tariffs by the Trump administration, and Canada’s retaliatory counter-tariffs.

[READ MORE: Ottawa will recover $3B from U.S. tariffs by 2021, says budget watchdog]

Ford, whose government has repeatedly criticized the federal government’s handling of the trade file, is taking part in a series of events and meetings on Thursday and Friday ahead of a panel on Saturday at the annual winter meeting for governors in the U.S. capital.

On Thursday, he’ll take the stage at the Canadian American Business Council with American Ambassador to Canada Kelly Craft. And on Friday morning he joins his fellow premiers for a morning panel on Canada-U.S. relations.

The trio will also speak to the National Governors Association in a closed-door meeting on Saturday afternoon.

“It’s an opportunity just to ensure that those new governors in some states, and also long time governors, understand the trading relationship,” Ontario’s Trade Minister Todd Smith said Wednesday.

Of particular concern for Ontario are the steel and aluminum tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump last spring. The tariffs were introduced citing national security concerns, but Trump initially called them a negotiating tactic in the ongoing trade talks.

When the tariffs weren’t lifted once the USMCA deal was struck, Canada’s Ambassador to the United States David MacNaughton said they would be lifted “sooner rather than later.”

But four months on, their continued imposition is wearing on the Progressive Conservative government in Ontario. Smith and Ford have previously suggested that the Trudeau government is botching the file. Two weeks ago, the province called on Ottawa to review its retaliatory tariffs.

The steel and aluminum tariffs, which are already leading to layoffs and putting pressure on manufacturers, will be near the top of Ford’s agenda in Washington, according to Smith.

[READ MORE: Ontario backtracks on calls for Ottawa to end retaliatory tariffs against U.S.]

“He’ll be talking about the issue, raising the issue, making sure that everyone is aware of the damage that it’s doing to the economy and to small and medium sized manufacturers,” Smith said.

The premiers’ trip to D.C. is another reminder of the seismic shifts in provincial politics since the last council of the federation mission to Washington in 2017. At that time, six of the eight premiers on the mission were Liberals, and largely onside with their federal cousins’ handling of the relationship with the White House.

Ottawa can’t count on that same support during this trip.

Smith has repeatedly laid the blame for the tariffs at the feet of the Trudeau government, and he repeated that assertion Wednesday.

“We want to encourage the feds to get active on this file and ensure that they’re dealing with the tariff issue,” Smith said. “It’s something they haven’t been taking seriously — at least from our perspective. There’s more that they can do and they need to ensure that those in the United States understand what a devastating impacts it’s having in their communities, in their states.”

Over the last two weeks, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland has met with American politicians in Washington and at a conference in Munich to press Canada’s case on tariffs — information her office was quick to point out when asked about criticisms from Ontario.

“Canada will continue to press the U.S. to remove these steel and aluminum tariffs that harm companies and workers in both Canada and the United States,” Freeland’s spokesperson Adam Austen said.

“ In the meantime, Canada’s reciprocal, dollar-for-dollar countermeasures will remain in place, and we continue to pursue our WTO and NAFTA Chapter 20 challenges of the U.S. tariffs.”

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