The latest example of the erratic, rudderless leadership coming from U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is found in steel.
The American administration announced last week that it was going to impose a 25 per cent tariff on steel and a 10 per cent tariff on aluminium from Canada. The decision came after the Americans gave Canada and other allies an exemption on the tariffs.
The American administration’s reasoning for the tariffs? National security.
Evidently Canadian steel represents a threat to American security. Are they afraid that Canadians are going to bull rush the Canada-U.S. border, and using Canadian steel, wallop our American counterparts with weapons fashioned from steel made in Saskatchewan, Ontario and Quebec?
Is this a concession that Canadian steel is better than American steel? Is Trump saying that the presence of Canadian steel represents a hindrance to the American economy?
Trump has been caught lying about trade with Canada before, further diminishing his credibility. And you can be sure he’ll eventually lie about Canada again.
Canada responded reasonably well. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced that the federal government would be imposing tariffs on a wide variety of American products, on everything from pizza to toilet paper.
It would be nice if those tariffs came into effect immediately, instead of July 1, but that might not have been possible.
Trudeau had to do something. Trump seems intent on having a trade war, which always has two sides: the instigator and the retaliator. We shouldn’t be the instigator in a trade war with the U.S., particularly when someone like Trump is involved. So we have to retaliate. Or lay down and let Trump’s administration trample all over us.
The latter definitely wasn’t an option.
The value of goods that we slap tariffs on has to be equivalent to the American tariffs on our products.
The unfortunate part about this trade war is we all become the victims. Canadian steel and aluminium exporters are hurt because it makes it more expensive to do business in the U.S. Employees of those companies suffer accordingly.
And we, the consumer, get hit indirectly with the cost of those tariffs. Everything from the cost of construction to the cost of products at the grocery store will go up.
We have criticized Trudeau on a variety of topics, from the legalization of marijuana to the budget, and from the carbon tax to electoral reform. We recently ripped him for the handling of the Trans-Mountain Pipeline Expansion. But one area where he deserves praise is his handling of the bombastic Trump. For the most part, they have had a positive relationship. And Canada needs to have a positive relationship between its prime minister and the U.S. president.
We’ll see if this puts a strain on their relations.
But Trudeau couldn’t afford to sit idly by on this one.
