Small movement on U.S. tariffs only the beginning

It’s a long road with no turns, but plenty of potholes. On Wednesday, there was a glimmer of hope up ahead — but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

In Congress, six republicans joined with Democrats to pass a motion to overturn U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canada. The Senate — which has already voted to remove the tariffs — will have to vote again, and then the motion will, in all likelihood, be vetoed by Trump.

Vetoed, because Trump never has, and probably never will, admit to having made a mistake.

But his move to tariff-centred economics is a massive mistake.

The stated “national security emergency” that was the legislative excuse for the Trump tariffs, particularly on Canada, has always, frankly, been a lie. And if “lie” is too harsh a word for you, then use “painfully feeble excuse.”

If U.S. national security truly was the issue, Trump wouldn’t have been threatening to raise tariffs because he was angry about an advertisement correctly quoting Ronald Reagan on tariffs. Nor would he have increased tariffs on Switzerland from 31 to 39 per cent simply because his feelings were hurt.

“I got an emergency call from, I believe, the prime minister of Switzerland,” Trump told Fox News this week, “and she was very aggressive, but nice, but very aggressive. ‘Sir, we are a small country, we can’t do this, we can’t do this,’ I couldn’t get her off the phone … And I didn’t really like the way she talked to us, so instead of giving her a reduction, I raised it to 39 per cent.”

Yes — the national security issue is Trump’s feelings, and Trump’s feelings alone.

We’ve said this before in this space, and it probably can’t be said often enough: there is no point in making any kind of deal with Trump, because he cannot be trusted to live up to the terms of any agreement.

His word is worthless, and for all intents and purposes, his commitments have the half-life of Francium-223 (scientifically, about 22 minutes).

A Trump commitment is always overtaken by the next spasm of grievance, which, truthfully, can be directed by the latest television show he’s watched, the latest lobbyist to arrive bearing gifts, awards or investment opportunities, or the latest snowflake round of simple hurt feelings.

As Prime Minister Mark Carney pointed out in mid-January, sadly, Canada’s relationship with China is now more predictable than its relationship with the United States — and that was before Trump took a bizarre dislike to a bridge between Canada and the U.S. and claimed he wouldn’t let it open.

Trump claims that his tariff moves will create new manufacturing businesses in the U.S., but as someone who touts himself as a brilliant businessman, he must know that rampant unpredictability is pure poison to business investment.

So where do we go from here? Well, the vote Wednesday was another small step forward, with a sliver of hope. Hopefully, the U.S. Supreme Court will rule soon on the pending case that argues Trump’s tariffs are an abuse of a power he doesn’t actually have — and wipe them off the map.

But keep the foot on the brakes when it comes to making deals.

It is far better to continue to move slowly and methodically with the U.S., both on tariffs and on the renewal of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement, and hope that — as may have started to happen in Congress on Wednesday — that other parts of the U.S. government, like the judicial and legislative branches, come to their senses and realize that Trump’s fickle style of governance is a road to eventual ruin.

We must bide our time. It’s a long, long road.