What’s dumb and dangerous about Trump’s tariffs?
In 2018, Trump’s administration negotiated the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which Trump personally signed. He called it "a terrific deal for all of us [2019]” and "The fairest, most balanced, and beneficial trade agreement we have ever signed into law. [2020]."
It called for zero tariffs on most products. Mr. Trump violated that by imposing 25% tariffs on all goods from Mexico and Canada except Canadian oil and energy exports, which received a 10% tariff. He claimed that illegal immigration and the period epidemic had caused a national emergency.
When a Canadian official then retaliated by ceasing to supply energy to three U.S. states to which it supplies energy under the Trump-negotiated USMCA, Trump said of the USMCA that Mexico and Canada “took advantage of the United States,” adding, “‘Who would ever sign a thing like this?’” (Ontario imposed a 25% surcharge on the electricity and warned of possibly halting service altogether. Trump retracted a threat to double certain tariffs and Ontario suspended the 25% surcharge.)
This alone would tell an objective observer that Mr. Trump is not very bright, not very honest, or both; but there’s more.
Tariffs are disfavored. They not only create friction with allies but bust the budgets of consumers in the U.S.. Other countries inevitably respond, resulting in inefficiency and higher costs of doing business. Here, Trump violated a specific agreement. Most subcontractors and investors who ever did business with Mr. Trump understand.
His excuse is fatuous. No Canadians are illegally entering the U.S., although they’re urging their leaders to resist joining us, U.S. citizens are fleeing to Canada. So that’s not applicable. That leaves Trump’s claim that Canada is letting too much fentanyl into the U.S. Of course, on all such claims I always wonder why, having created a society where so many people are so miserable or desperate they get addicted to drugs, we blame someone else. But that’s me.
First, the U.S. seized 43 pounds of fentanyl at the Canadian border in 2024, less than 1% of the fentanyl entering the U.S.
Second, as a truck driver commented, when he takes goods into Canada, the Canadians just accept his paperwork or search his vehicle before letting him in. When he takes goods into the U.S., U.S. authorities either accept his paperwork or search his truck first. Canadian authorities have nothing to do with his entry to the U.S. As U.S. authorities stop us and inspect our vehicles entering from Juarez, but not when we enter Mexico. Canada has nothing to do with what’s in trucks entering the U.S.
In a lawsuit over the trade agreement, the U.S. would lose real fast.
Meanwhile, the tariffs, the tensions and uncertainty they generate, and the way Trump magnified that uncertainty by refusing to reassure folks that he’s not causing a recession, along with his other mad behavior and mass illegal firings, has consumers nervous and the stock market so far down that a Fox News reporter, known as a MAGA attack dog against Biden, asked Trump’s press person, “Are you sure someone in the White House isn’t shorting the Dow?” ( J.P. Morgan warns that there is a 40% chance of a U.S. recession in 2025 )
Canada’s retaliatory tariffs on approximately C$29.8 billion worth of American goods, including steel, aluminum, and various consumer products further strained trade relations and increased everyone’s costs for businesses.
Who needs this?
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[The above column appeared Sunday, 16 March, in the Las Cruces Sun-News, and
on the newspaper's website, and should be posted soon on KRWG's website under Local Viewpoints. A shortened and sharpened radio commentary version will air during the coming week on KRWG (90.1 FM) and on KTAL-LP (101.5 FM / http://www.lccommunityradio.org/). ]
[Sorry - thought this got published Sunday, but it seems not to have been, so attempting that again.]
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