We’re giving, they’re taking — where’s the win?

In the give-and-take of negotiations so far, Canada seems to be doing all the giving, while the United States does all the taking.

In the last few days, the Canadian government said it was backing away from a five per cent levy to be paid by American streaming services such as Amazon and Netflix after, earlier, dropping the three per cent digital services tax. Then, there was what now appears to be succumbing to American President Donald Trump over the Gordie Howe International Bridge, where Canada agreed to let the U.S. share the net revenues from the bridge, even though Canada paid for the entire construction.

Now, Prime Minister Mark Carney is signalling he won’t use energy exports to the United States as a bargaining chip in the current talks on the Canada-U.S.-Mexico free trade agreement, saying he didn’t “see the value” of using Canada’s energy exports to the U.S. as a trade bargaining chip.

“Canadians are reliable,” Carney said Wednesday in Red Deer, Alta. “One of the biggest commodities, arguably the best, is trust. People trust us, and so, when you’re a supplier of a key commodity, key service, you’ve got to think really hard about not supplying.”

Donald Trump’s only response has been to issue new threats and pile on new questionably-legal tariffs, and to argue once again that the U.S. needs nothing from Canada.

It makes you wonder. Why should we be the reasonable and trustworthy ones, when we are dealing with someone who is neither? And even if Mark Carney doesn’t intend to use Canada’s substantial energy exports to the U.S. at the negotiating table, why telegraph that information to someone as unscrupulous as Donald Trump?

You can almost expect Trump’s reaction — to congratulate himself fulsomely on the success of his attacks on Canada, and then almost immediately launch a new set of tariffs.

Perhaps Carney is playing the long game — dodging and weaving under Trump’s attacks and trying to slow-walk dealings with the United States for the longest time possible while hoping for a political sea change in the U.S. November mid-term elections.

Perhaps his response was somewhat coloured by the fact it was given in Alberta, where there’s going to be a fall referendum around separation, and where Canada’s four-million-barrel-a-day oil exports to the U.S. are big business.

Or maybe it’s all part of plan that recognizes that Trump has demonstrated very little staying power on many issues and often moves on to new ones when there’s no obvious reaction to his particular form of political sadism.

Whatever his motivation, the strategy seems like an odd one — the prime minister who called for Canadians to be “elbows up” instead looks like he’s turtling on the ice and giving in, all the while expecting the referee to step in.

Except there is no referee.

We’ve said it before. Be polite and slow and solid. Low profile. Give no major ground and spend as much time and effort as possible to make better trade relations with new players away from the United States.

As to dealing with the U.S., giving up potential bargaining chips before there’s even a hint of a trade-off involved isn’t gaining us anything.

For ordinary Canadians? Boycotts of U.S. travel and U.S. products are clearly leaving a mark and putting pressure both on American businesses and politicians.

Donald Trump is a bully. He can’t be mollified and he enjoys hitting other nations, especially when he feels they can’t do anything. Kowtowing to him will only bring on a new round of trade attacks.