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Amid heightened angst that protectionist measures proposed in the United States could punish Alberta’s oilpatch, two analysts said Wednesday the feared border tax is unlikely to be implemented.

Republicans in the House of Representatives have pitched the border adjustment tax as part of broader plans to increase U.S. manufacturing by taxing imports and cutting corporate taxes for American exporters.

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The proposal has created some consternation in Alberta, where there are fears the measure would further lower the price of the province’s crude exports across the border.

Still, president-elect Donald Trump, who will be inaugurated Friday, was critical of the border tax in an interview with the Wall Street Journal last week, calling the measure “too complicated.”

Robert Johnston, chief executive of the political risk consultancy Eurasia Group, told a Calgary crowd Wednesday there is little chance — perhaps 25 per cent — the U.S. government would pass a border tax, and even less likelihood it would affect crude.