The art of appeasing Trump

American literary icon Mark Twain once wrote that it is pointless to argue with an idiot. “They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.”

Twain’s words must be ringing in the ears of Prime Minister Mark Carney, his ministers and diplomats working diligently in Washington to forge some sort of cogent strategy to combat the idiocy of U.S. trade policy and demands from President Donald Trump.

Canada and Mexico are trying to negotiate a long-term extension of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico-Agreement on Trade. During negotiations, Canada and Mexico have been witness to a level of irrationality that questions the notion the U.S. actually has a strategy.

The U.S. has repeatedly raised unfounded allegations Canada was the single biggest source of illegal migration and fentanyl being smuggled into the U.S. (we are not), that Canada benefits from unfair trade surplus (we do not, particularly if you remove oil and gas), and that Canada was already imposing the world’s highest tariffs on U.S. products (we never have).

These unhinged allegations were recently expanded.

First, that Canada must pay compensation to the private owner of the aged Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Ont., to soften the blow from the opening of the new Gordie Howe International Bridge, which was built by Canadian taxpayers at a cost of $6.4 billion.

Trump has obstructed the official opening of the bridge, despite the fact it is desperately needed to transport more than 40,000 commuters and US$323 million in goods every day across the busiest border crossing between the two countries.

There is no reasonable legal or moral argument for paying compensation to a private bridge owner that has held a punitive monopoly on personal and commercial traffic — but that hasn’t stopped Trump from raising it as a CUSMA issue.

At the same time, Trump’s trade officials raised concerns about Canada’s lack of effort to ban imports made with forced labour. This concern has prompted Ottawa to introduce legislation to more tightly restrict imports involving forced labour.

Could Canada do a better job policing imports that use forced labour? Absolutely, but so could other countries — including the U.S. Despite talking a good game, most informed observers agree the U.S. is not living up to its hyperbole.

Finally, after it was raised as an issue at CUSMA negotiations, Ottawa has taken steps to revise efforts by the CRTC to exact higher fees from U.S. streaming services to support Canadian film and television production. Even though the CRTC was only doing what a lot of European nations are doing to protect domestic industries, we folded our hand.

The unflattering consequence of all this idiocy is a long list of instances in which Canada has had to swallow its astonishment and take measures to address Trump’s irrational concerns. There’s been a complete lack of acknowledgement from Trump that we are yielding to his irrational claims and demands.

In addition to the aforementioned decisions to pass new laws to stop forced labour imports and abandon higher charges to streaming services, Canada has taken steps to deal with a fentanyl smuggling problem that doesn’t exist by appointing a “fentanyl czar” to oversee targeted efforts to stop the flow of the dangerous synthetic opioid.

How have we been rewarded? CUSMA has still not been signed and the Gordie Howe bridge remains closed.

It’s not that Canada has done nothing.

Ottawa has imposed countervailing tariffs on U.S. imports to Canada to protest against American tariffs. Provincial governments followed suit by banning all U.S. alcohol from the shelves of their liquor and beer stores. Canadians have taken it upon themselves to spend their tourism dollars in other countries.

These actions are legally and morally justifiable. However, rather than being convinced to adopt a more reasonable posture in CUSMA negotiations, Trump has lashed out with new, outlandish comments.

Trump said last week he didn’t want an extension of CUSMA because it is “irrelevant” to American economic interests and that “we don’t need anything that Canada has.”

Pete Hoekstra, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, tried valiantly to walk back some of that hyperbole, but the impact on Ottawa was clear for all to see.

For now, we’re trapped in global trade’s version of “the upside down,” a place where logic has fled, and reasonable concessions fail to produce better results.

Should Canada take a different approach?

There is an argument that most of the times we’ve blinked — the fentanyl czar, the forced-labour legislation — we’ve done so in ways that have not cost us a lot of money and, when all is said and done, support notions that are defensible in and of themselves. Who doesn’t want less fentanyl and T-shirts made with forced labour?

However, there should be concern that these gestures do nothing to satisfy the insatiable appetite of a man who only knows how to take, without acknowledging his obligation to give.

Right now, Trump’s idiocy is helping him get what he wants. We should hope we are gaining enough experience with idiots to stop before we give away something really important.

dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca