Maple Association Director Allison Hope Communicates Maple Industry Importance, Necessary Canadian Partnership
When U.S. Sen. Peter Welch looked for someone to communicate the cost of the Trump Administration imposing a tariff on Canada in Washington, there was Hope from the Northeast Kingdom.
Allison Hope, of Lyndon, in her role as executive director of the Vermont Maple Sugar Makers Association, was called upon by the senator to deliver the message at a press conference on Tuesday in the U.S. Capitol.
She and guests of other U.S. Senators stood at the podium to share how the tariffs will have negative impacts. The audience was senators and their guests and reporters. Hope was first to share, and was introduced to the podium by Sen. Amy Klobuchar, of Minnesota.
“Vermont makes about 50-51% of the U.S. production of pure maple syrup, and we have Canadian partners across the border,” said Hope. “In the past 20 years, Vermont’s production rates have grown 500%, and a 25% Canadian tariff on maple equipment—most of which comes across the border, because that’s where most maple syrup is made—on the Canadian imports that come into Vermont will have a staggering effect on Vermont’s producers, who not only are agricultural farmers, but they are foresters, and so they keep a large swath of Vermont forested.”
Hope talked for just over a minute and a half without the need for notes. She said she was told she only had one minute, but now wishes she had taken more time to communicate the importance of the maple industry.
“I really wish I had just taken more time. What are they going to do start the music, pull out a cane?” she asked. “I mean, the President (during his address to Congress later on Tuesday) gave the longest presidential speech in history. I probably could have taken a few more minutes.”
Hope’s trip to Washington D.C. was for less than 24 hours. She said she wasn’t sure what to expect but told herself to go with whatever flow and pace came her way. Things moved fast when she landed on Tuesday afternoon.
“I went from the plane to my car to the metro, to Senator Welch’s office, to the press conference,” she said.
After the conference, she had enough time to go to her Air BnB and prepare for dinner at the Capitol.
She wasn’t sure who she would be dining with, but upon arrival, she realized it was a significant gathering.
“It was a pretty fancy set up, and it wasn’t just the senator and the guests that I had met before, it was senators across the spectrum,” said Hope. “I only recognized that when (Sen.) Mitch McConnell (of Kentucky) was waiting beside me to go in.”
Her dinner table company included Sen. Welch, his wife, Margaret, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.) and her guest, and Sen. Adam Schiff, from California. With Sen. Schiff was his guest, a fire department captain from Los Angeles who was involved in fighting the recent wildfires there.
“He had a lot to share about how things were being affected in California and changes at the federal level, how they were affecting Californians and the ability to fight wildfires,” said Hope. “I was humbled by some extremely fascinating and sad stories from guests about the variety of different changes and how they’re gonna affect Americans long-term and sort of everyday lives.”
After dinner, Hope was escorted to the gallery of the House chamber as Sen. Welch’s guest to witness President Trump’s address.
“It was sort of surreal,” she said. “I had to stop every once in a while and just take in the moment and say ‘OK, I’m looking straight ahead and I’m actually looking at the president and the vice president.’”
The magnitude of the moment really struck her when the U.S. Supreme Court justices filed into the chamber.
“To have all of those people in the same room at the same time and the amount of energy that is expended to pull one of these things off was sort of mind-boggling.”
She also saw other notable guests.
“I look to my right in the guest seating in the balcony and say, ‘oh, OK there’s Elon Musk in the flesh. There’s Don Junior in the flesh. There’s Melania.”
She was among many important people, she said, but it was a good reminder that everyone there, including her, were “just people.”
“It was just a reminder that this whole thing is fueled by flesh and blood people just like us back home,” she said.
Hope said she was glad she could go to Capitol Hill and represent the state, the maple industry and the importance of the Canadian partnerships.
“I was there as a physical reminder of what might occur in Vermont because of the Canadian tariffs and just bearing witness to how that comes to play,” she said.
Sen. Welch said he was thankful for Hope at his side in Washington.
“Allison and Vermont’s best-in-the-nation sugar makers know all too well the impact of Trump’s Trade War, which took a dangerous turn today,” Sen. Welch said on Tuesday. “The maple industry, like so many industries in Vermont, will be hit by the new tariffs on Canada. The President’s tariffs are a reckless tax hike for America’s farmers, businesses, and families. The honest and simple truth is that nobody wins a trade war.”
Hope didn’t linger in Washington, flying back to Vermont early in the afternoon on Wednesday. There was some place even more important that she needed to be.
“I volunteer at the Kingdom Animal Shelter (in St. Johnsbury), and I wanted to make sure I was back for my 4:30 tuck-in shift for the cats,” she said.
Story Written by Dana Gray, Caledonian Record