Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: As International Bridge Crossings Plummet, Governor Hochul Holds Roundtable With Business Leaders and Farmers in the North Country Impacted by Trump’s Tariffs, Continues to Call for $13.5 Billion Refund

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul held a roundtable with business leaders and farmers from the North Country to hear about the challenges they’ve faced over the past year while navigating the Trump administration’s reckless tariff policies. After the Supreme Court ruled the President’s International Emergency Economic Powers Act tariffs unlawful, Governor Hochul immediately called for the federal government to return the estimated $13.5 billion illegally taken from New Yorkers. During the conversation, the roundtable participants underscored how the economic chaos coming out of Washington and decrease in border crossings have upended their families’ financial livelihoods and made planning for the future impossible.

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Governor’s Flickr page will post photos of the event here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

 This place is so beautiful. I remember a few years ago there was a senior event here and they came up and — maybe I was with Patty Richie or somebody — and I had a chance to be in this beautiful space and spent more time looking out the windows than doing anything. But it's so great to be back here in Ogdensburg on the banks of the historic and majestic St. Lawrence River, a river that I've been on many times and just cherish this part of our state. It is so beautiful. And when I look out, the first thing — how our close connectivity to Canada and what that has meant throughout our history. It's an economic partnership that has endured and thrived probably ever since 1812, which is a little rougher time for us. I'm from Buffalo. My city was burned down, but I tell my friends in Canada, all is forgiven. But when you have a 430-mile border with another country this close, it is not another country to us. It is just a neighbor. These are our friends. This is a relationship that we benefit from at a personal level, but also it's such an important part of our economy, especially in these communities here. Our exports were about 20 billion to Canada and we imported about 20 billion back. So it was very much a balanced relationship.

And what is so tragic, and Steve will talk about this, the traffic on the bridge has declined precipitously ever since just a little over a year ago. That was really a direct attack from our federal government on Canada in terms of really breaking down the bonds that have kept us together for so many hundreds of years. So bridge traffic is down about 23 percent, and what that means is every single, one less person means fewer people going into a restaurant or walking the streets or going to our beautiful attractions here and going to hotels and fishing, and just all those connections that we took for granted, that were so critical to us, just never happened.

So every part of our state is affected by the tariffs, which we'll talk about. But it is these border communities, from Buffalo all the way on up in Ogdensburg in particular, that are really feeling the loss of that relationship and whether it's the declining revenues across the bridge, which are important, but everything else that feeds into that, I'm sure you'll be talking about that.

I'm deeply concerned about the tariffs. I've done round tables around the state. I wanted to make sure I came here to hear your voices directly, what it's doing to our farmers, people like Ron, who are just trying to make it all stay together under unforeseen circumstances. These tariffs were not something you planned for and businesses need certainty. They need to know what the rules of the road are. They need to know they're doing their one and five and 10 year projections, and the same thing with farmers. If you're a dairy farmer or you're planting, you have to know how much it's going to cost you, what your expenses are going to be? Is the fertilizer cost going to go up? Is the cost of lumber going to go up? And for a long time there was some stability related to that. Yes, inflation, but the tariffs on top of the inflation have just made it so difficult. So we are part of a coalition of states and others who are now saying — there's 24 states saying — now that the Supreme Court has spoken and said that these tariffs were illegal, should never have been collected, that I believe we're entitled to rebates.

Now, easier said than done, but I'm fighting for this because that money is owed to the people of our country, our state, and our businesses. So that's the way I'm looking at it. We're going to continue our lawsuit, a coalition of 24 states. And my estimation is that the federal government owes New Yorkers $13.5 billion, about $1,700 per family, separate from the efforts to have businesses reimbursed. And in the meantime, I put $30 million in my budget, which I hope to get through the legislature very soon to support our farmers. It's my Farm Tariff Relief Act. Also our support for our $15 million for the Dairy Farm Modernization Grant Program to help our dairy farmers. I come from a long line of dairy farmers in Ireland, and I have real sympathy for them.

But what I wanted to do here today is just have an honest conversation about the effects on real people, real businesses and real communities of what this hostility toward Canada has done, but also the imposition of these tariffs, which according to the President, I'm not sure he is going to follow the Supreme Court because he's now trying to find another way to continue the imposition of these tariffs, which there's no good that comes out of them for New Yorkers, and that's what I want to talk about.

So Steve, I want to turn it over to you. And you've given decades of service to this community. I want to thank you for that and this authority, and I'll let you give