U.S. President Donald Trump during a meeting in the Oval Office Tuesday.Mark Schiefelbein/The Associated Press
When is it acceptable to stand up to the United States? According to the Trump administration, never. That’s the unmistakable message of its latest bullying.
President Donald Trump announced Monday that he would levy 50-per-cent tariffs on a long list of Canadian exports, affecting goods ranging from cement to wine to hockey sticks. These levies were slated to take effect in a month.
The mercurial Mr. Trump has changed his mind before. And Prime Minister Mark Carney announced Tuesday that he and Mr. Trump had agreed to “intensify” trade talks, making it unclear whether this latest tariff threat is a real plan or a bargaining chip.
But if these tariffs go ahead they will be another unjustified blow to the Canadian economy, and the attempt to justify them speaks volumes.
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A fact-sheet issued to accompany Mr. Trump’s tariff proclamations argued that Canada was engaged in “continued discrimination against and unreasonable and unequal treatment of U.S. commerce” and noted that only two countries in the world – Canada and China – had retaliated against early tariffs the U.S. had imposed.
It’s important to understand that those two grievances are entwined in the mind of the Trump administration. The “discrimination” against the U.S. includes Canadian policies that were put in place specifically in response to earlier economic attacks by Mr. Trump. That is “retaliation,” in his eyes.
This is the logic of a country that seeks vassals, not partners. In essence, the U.S. position is that we can hit you as much as we want and if you hit us back that’s unfair.
The U.S. Trade Representative, Jamieson Greer, makes that clear in a statement, also issued on Monday: “Today, President Trump took decisive action to hold Canada accountable for its retaliation and discrimination.”
Punishing Canada for how it responded to Americans’ own actions by ramping up the economic siege is a funny sort of accountability. But you’ll excuse Canadians for not laughing.
The whole Trumpian attack on Canada is long past the stage that might be dismissed as a joke. Although many American commentators treat it as nothing but trolling, and wonder why Canadians are angry and defensive, the threat feels real from this side of the border. And for good reason.
The full list of Canadian goods targeted by Trump’s new 50% tariffs
Consider that a year ago it would have been easy to dismiss Mr. Trump’s coveting of Greenland. But a recent New Yorker article laid out how U.S. designs on the Danish territory, while shambolic, are deadly serious.
No leader – whether in Copenhagen or in Ottawa – can treat threats to sovereignty as a joke. Besides, trolling or not, there have been serious economic consequences flowing from Mr. Trump’s attacks on Canada.
The latest U.S. tariff threat continues those attacks while offering an implicit bargain: do as we say and we won’t follow through on the extra levies we’re threatening. There are a couple of problems with agreeing to such a deal.
Leverage, for one. The fact that United States is upset over some of Canada’s counter-measures shows their power.
For example, the decision of most provinces to remove U.S. wine, beer and spirits from store shelves is a major irritant south of the border. A California senator recently pleaded with Canadians to reconsider and a New York state representative threatened retaliation over the bans.
Why would Canadians reverse such a tactic without getting something real in return? And something real has to mean more than just a rollback to the tariff policy of last week.
Similarly, giving up Canadian tariffs on U.S. vehicles – imposed in response to American tariffs on our own exports – in return for nothing would be surrender, not negotiation.
More importantly, if there’s anything the Trump presidencies have showed Canadians it’s that his word is not his bond. Any agreement with the United States can be jettisoned whenever he feels like it. Remember, he decided not to renew USMCA, the continental free-trade deal he signed, only six years after calling it “the fairest, most balanced, and beneficial trade agreement we have ever signed into law.”
There’s no reason for Canada to supplicate itself to reach a trade deal that might not even last. Because giving in to pressure tactics is a good way to encourage more of them.
As many people learn in grade school, if you let the bully take your lunch money you’ll end up feeding him for the rest of the year.