The tariffs from Donald Trump are coming and barring a last-minute decision in the other direction that is not up for debate.
A story from Reuters mid-afternoon Friday claimed Trump’s tariffs on Mexico and Canada would be put off until March 1 was quickly shot down.
In her daily briefing, Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s press secretary, said the Reuters story was false.
“I was just with the President in the Oval Office, and I can confirm that tomorrow, the Feb. 1 deadline that President Trump put into place in a statement several weeks ago, continues,” Leavitt said.
Later in the day, speaking from the Oval Office, Trump confirmed that tariffs on Canadian goods were coming but that Canadian oil might be at a lower rate.
“I’m probably going to reduce the tariff a little bit on that. I think we’re going to bring it down to 10% on the oil,” Trump said while stating the general tariff would be 25% on Canadian goods.
Trump also said he would push tariffs on other countries and regions, including the European Union. Trump and his team are true believers on the issue of tariffs believing they will help American workers and bring manufacturing back to the United States.
They also believe they can use tariffs to charge other countries for costs such as defence spending, which for decades Canada and many European countries in NATO have been laggards on.
“We were paying almost 100% of NATO and all we got was bad trade deals,” Trump said Friday.
Basically, we are being hit with tariffs now because we didn’t spend enough earlier on issues like defence, on border security, on dismantling the organized crime syndicates – the mafia, the triads, the Mexican cartels – that are importing and exporting drugs across our border.
There is no clear sign that were Canada to do what needs to be done on the Canada-U.S. border that we would escape the tariffs, though the fixes on the border would be beneficial to our own country.
“We aren’t looking for a concession, we will just see what happens,” Trump said when asked about what Canada could do.
Sadly, it feels like our political leaders have spent more time planning retaliatory tariffs than trying to understand why Trump and those around him are taking the stance they are.
The knee-jerk reaction in Canada, exemplified by some commentators claiming Trump is an idiot, that those around him know nothing about the economy shows a self-defeating arrogance. Trump’s economic team is filled with successful business people like Howard Lutnick and Stephen Miran and those with high-level degrees in economics like Miran, former University of California professor Peter Navarro, or former economics professor Kevin Hassett.
It’s not that the people around Trump are idiots, it is that they have a different point of view.
“This is not inflationary,” Lutnick said Wednesday when appearing before the Senate Commerce Committee. “It is just nonsense that tariffs cause inflation.”
These people around Trump don’t accept the current orthodoxy, so you can read their papers and books as they explain their thinking to try and understand it or you can yell that they are wrong and call them morons. Most of Canada’s chattering classes seem to want to yell that he is a moron and not do anything to understand what they are doing or why.
Speaking before a meeting of government, business and labour leaders on Friday, Trudeau said Canada doesn’t want the tariffs but is ready.
“Right now, we’re showing the new American administration that they have a strong partner in Canada when it comes to upholding border security,” Trudeau said. “All while simultaneously underscoring that we won’t back down, that if tariffs are implemented against Canada, we will respond, we won’t relent.”
That last part had had Trump’s press secretary saying Trudeau should speak more to the President and less to the media.
“The President is intent on doing this and I think Justin Trudeau would be wise to talk to President Trump directly before pushing outlandish comments like that to the media,” Leavitt said.
Trudeau called for a gradual and measured response to the Trump tariffs while Ontario Premier Doug Ford, currently on the campaign trail seeking re-election, called for a fast and harsh response.
“We have to show strength, being united, and emphasize to the federal government that we have to retaliate hard. Not soft, hard,” Ford said.
Polling shows Ford’s position is popular even if it might not be smart or effective. We are facing months of chaos, both political and economic, as a result of what is coming out of Washington and the lack of leadership in Ottawa.
Buckle up.