Trump’s trade war with Canada makes no sense — and it’s not meant to

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The tariffs imposed on Canadian goods by U.S. President Donald Trump don’t make any sense — and I am not convinced they’re supposed to, or that there’s any way for us to reasonably understand and to adequately respond.

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Consider the idea that the tariffs were, on paper, enacted as punishment for the apparently huge amounts of fentanyl flowing over the border into the U.S. from Canada. Many jurisdictions had already devoting a billion dollars to bolster border patrols in response to the claim.

Meanwhile, Trump also said he was going to use economic coercion to force Canada to become the 51st state of his grand union. Yet more recently, he also stated he was not looking for any concessions from Canada by imposing tariffs.

The ultimate proof that these tariffs are all for show is the 10 per cent carve-out for Canadian oil and gas, likely to minimize the impact at gas stations.

Other people with better economics credentials than myself have already explained in great detail why these tariffs, which come into effect Tuesday, will hurt the very people they were purportedly meant to help.

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And while it’s political necessary for Canada to respond in kind, which it has, we must urgently consider what comes next.

Plenty of folks are hoping U.S.-Canada relations can be mended at some point.

But in the here and how, we have a neighbour and supposed friend who’s no longer interested in the close economic ties that have linked our two nations for longer than most of us have been alive.

Of course, we must continue to try and engage with our friends to the south but if they want a break, we should be OK with it.

There are 7.7 billion people on this little blue marble of ours who don’t live in the U.S.A. Many of them might be interested in our food, our natural resources and our finished goods. We should be doing everything we can to foster these relationships.

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No, we can’t turn our economy on a dime, but we must turn.

With Canada coming face to face with Trump’s version of diplomacy, important people are suddenly realizing how vital it is to have more than one major trading partner.

One potentially quick win is with the United Kingdom, whose previous government walked away from trade talks with Canada in May 2024 because of a disagreement over cheese.

Cross-border pipeline troubles of days gone by seem like child’s play now that we’re faced with a U.S. leadership willing to disrupt its economic relations with Canada and Mexico just because it can. Trump has also threatened the sovereignty of Canada, Greenland and Panama … and for what, exactly?

It seems foolish and maybe dangerous to find any logic behind what the Wall Street Journal has rightly deemed a dumb trade war.

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But I can’t help but feel as if this chaos is meant to keep the rest of the world preoccupied, in the hope we won’t have the bandwidth or empathy to notice and react to all the other things happening down south.

Media reports since Trump’s inauguration have described the swift and methodical dismantling of the checks and balances meant to prevent any one person from becoming a monarch, for all intents and purposes. In some cases, those safeguards were simply ignored.

Critical scientific information has been deleted because they happen not to fit the worldview of the people in charge.

And let’s not forget all the people sucking up to Trump to take advantage of his access to everything.

It will be very easy for Canadians and others worldwide to become absorbed by domestic ramifications of dealing with an unjustifiably belligerent U.S. administration.

But we must continue to take the time and effort to remind Americans that our quarrel isn’t with them but with their new political leadership.

As much as we will be hurting, we must recognize a great number of Americans will be needlessly hurting as well.

For all the craziness that happens in high office, no government or person can undo the deep personal bonds that tie our great, separate nations together.

rleong@postmedia.com

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