FORT KENT – Free trade, economic development, health care, government red tape, and border problems were all on the table as 2nd District U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud met with municipal officials and area businesspeople at an early morning meeting here Wednesday.

Back in the area for the first time since he was elected in November, Michaud met with about 15 area residents for about 90 minutes. Many in attendance let the congressman know they thought little had been done for the area economically over the years, and that many problems were brought on by the federal government in Washington.

“Free trade is not so free,” Allen Chamberland of Fort Kent told Michaud.

“What can be done to help economic development?” Leo Trudel, economic development director for Fort Kent, asked.

“It takes months to get anything done with the Small Business Administration,” Ed Collins, a Fort Kent businessman, claimed. “Why can’t veterans have a choice when it comes to health care?” asked Fort Kent Town Manager Donald Guimond.

“Storefronts are empty [in Madawaska] when we used to have shopping lines and traffic lines,” Tina Deschaine, executive director of the Greater Madawaska Chamber of Commerce, said.

Michaud said he agreed with much of what he heard.

He said free trade is involved with the problems at Great Northern Paper, where he worked for more than a quarter-century, in his hometown of Millinocket.

“Imports from Canada killed us,” he said of the GNP mills. “It is much the same for an apple grower in Southern Maine who is being killed by apples imported from China, and we taught them how to grow apples.”

Michaud told the group, however, that there is no “silver bullet” for the problems. He urged local officials to build infrastructure and to market the area however they can whenever they travel.

The congressman said companies are complacent about coming to Maine, because the state does not do a good job of marketing itself. But companies that do come to Maine are happy once they are here, he said.