Another day, another Trump tariff threat

Opinion

We apologize.

We apologize deeply for going back to the same ground we worked in our July 11 editorial, when we said, about U.S. President Donald Trump’s 50 per cent tariff levy on Brazil, “It was Canada a couple of weeks ago, when Trump was railing about the unfairness of a Canadian dairy tariff that he actually agreed to in the last Canada-U.S.-Mexico trade pact and that hasn’t been levied, and it’s Brazil’s turn now. And it will be Canada again.”

Because it is Canada. Again.

Thursday night, on his own social media outlet, Trump posted a letter that he was sending to Prime Minister Mark Carney, decrying drugs “pouring into our Country” from Canada, and complaining about the aforementioned tariff on dairy products. (Which American dairy exporters would face if they reached certain export levels — which they never have reached, and hence, are tariffs they never have paid. But why bother to worry about facts?)

The letter starts out “It is a great honour for me to send you this letter in that it demonstrates the strength and commitment of our trading relationship, and the fact that the United States has agreed to continue working with Canada, despite Canada having financially retaliated against the United States…”

Trump then goes on to say that he is ordering a 35 per cent tariff on Canadian products to come into effect on Aug. 1, over and above tariffs already announced on steel, aluminum and auto parts, and threatens to increase that rate if Canada retaliates with tariffs of its own.

It doesn’t explain whether, like his last threat of 10 per cent or 20 per cent, the tariff only applies to products outside the CUSMA trade agreement.

“If Canada works with me to stop the flow of fentanyl, we will, perhaps, consider an adjustment to this letter. These tariffs may be modified upwards or downwards, depending on our relationship with your country. You will never be disappointed with the United States of America. Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

Far from never being disappointed, we are, in fact, deeply disappointed with the United States of America. Or, at least, with its threatener-in-chief. He does not negotiate in good faith, he changes his demands and the reasons for them at the drop of a hat, and seems to think that disrupting global trade, roiling global financial markets and upending relationships with long-standing friendly nations is somehow “doing business.”

It’s not.

At this point, we should be looking at cutting our losses in the best way we can. It’s time to leave Trump behind: we can make nice in trade talks, do our best to mollify a president who can’t even be bothered to use facts to bolster his “national security” tariffs, but in every possible way, we should be moving to separate ourselves from trade with the United States under Trump.

We should avoid American products, decline to vacation or travel in the United States, and refuse to absorb American tariffs into the prices Canadian sellers charge American customers. Americans should feel the full cost of their president’s unilateral “negotiations.”

As well, we should look to enter trade agreements with nations that negotiate honestly and fairly, and that then live up to the terms and spirit of those negotiations. And move every bit of trade we can to those countries.

It took just seven hours from when our earlier editorial was written until Trump proved the editorial’s central thesis to be correct: “There is a simple truth President Trump is making more and more clear with each passing day and each passing edict. If you give in to blackmail, the blackmailer will just come back later for more.”

He’ll be back, demanding even more.

Depend on it.