Commentary by Stephen Macaulay
What Donald Trump is saying about our economic relations with Canada are complete, unmitigated bullshit.
Too bold or strident?
Hardly.
This man, with his evident lack of understanding of how trade works, is going to cause all manner of pain to everyday working Americans, many of whom voted for him, and everyday working Canadians who didn’t.
Truth Social: “We pay hundreds of Billions of Dollars to SUBSIDIZE Canada. Why? There is no reason. We don’t need anything they have.”
All nonsense.
The billions of dollars in question are related to things that Americans buy from Canada.
Here’s how it works:
Someone makes something you want. There is a price on that. You pay the price.
They get the money. You get the product.
If the U.S. buys more from Canada than it sells to Canada, then that is because Americans want more Canadian products and Canadians want fewer American products.
The situation as it exists isn’t some sort of situation where Canada is dumping products or selling them for less than cost.
It is simply that AMERICANS BUY MORE STUFF FROM CANADA.
This is a choice. They are not, in his words, “ripping us off.”
“We don’t need anything they have.”
While someone might argue that buying a minivan built in a factory in Windsor, Ontario, might not be a necessity, odds are that petroleum that goes into existing minivans is something that we need. Sure, we are producing more oil than any other country — 13.2 million barrels of oil per day (funny Biden didn’t get credit for that, which he deserves, which is good or bad depending on you view of CO2 emissions) — but some of the 5.2 million barrels that Canada pumps is necessary because some US oil refineries are setup to process it. Do the people who work in those US refineries need their jobs? Do people in the Midwest who pump the resultant gas into their tanks need that fuel?
According to Trump’s thinking, no.
He went on: “We have unlimited Energy, should make our own Cars, and have more Lumber than we can ever use. Without this massive subsidy, Canada ceases to exist as a viable Country. Harsh but true! Therefore, Canada should become our Cherished 51stState. Much lower taxes, and far better military protection for the people of Canada — AND NO TARIFFS!”
This is how a freedom-loving country behaves?
Either you do what we want you or you cease to exist?
This is how a country that gave rise to the Greatest Generation, women and men who sacrificed their lives for the freedom of others simply because it was the right thing to do, treats our closest ally and neighbor?
This is shameful.
In Trump’s response to The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board’s essay titled “The Dumbest Trade War in History,” he writes, in part:
“THIS WILL BE THE GOLDEN AGE OF AMERICA! WILL THERE BE SOME PAIN? YES, MAYBE (AND MAYBE NOT!). BUT WE WILL MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, AND IT WILL ALL BE WORTH THE PRICE THAT MUST BE PAID.”
Yes, there it is, an admission that people visiting Kroger, Walmart, Mobil, and elsewhere are going to feel the pain of rising costs.
Do he and his billionaire enablers care about an additional 50 cents per gallon at the pump? Do they ever even go into a grocery store?
How do a whole bunch of people who have to scrimp to get by — and I’m not talking about the poor in the country, who seem to be entirely irrelevant to Trump — make America great?
It won’t be long before people, regular people, people who go to work every day in factories and warehouses and supermarkets and doctors’ offices, experience “THE PRICE THAT MUST BE PAID.”
What is not at all clear is why that price must be paid.
That’s because this is complete, unmitigated bullshit.
Note: Although there has been a 30-day “pause” on the threatened tariffs, the foregoing still stands. The consequences of tariffs on the American people would be bleak. And for those who are concerned about the well-being of friends, it wouldn’t be helpful for people in Canada and Mexico, either.
However, one thing has now been established: America cannot be trusted by other countries in the world. Treaties evidently have no meaning. Working relationships can be dissolved with the stroke of a Sharpie.
The United States has played a pivotal role in the world following World War II largely through its engagement with the rest of the world, politically, economically and militarily.
But what we are seeing now is a destruction of that by a group of people who clearly have no understanding of the way many of the countries have integrated.
In effect, the isolation that Trump is talking about isn’t going to Make America Great Again.
It will make America North Korea.