Last night, President Trump abruptly announced the imposition of 35% tariffs against Canada effective August 1st in part because the Canadian government had the nerve to impose retaliatory measures against earlier U.S. tariffs. Trump also mentioned something Canada not doing enough about fentanyl despite the fact smuggling of the drug over the Canada-U.S. border is virtually non-existent.
This is Trump being Trump.
Scarcely a fortnight ago, Trump abruptly halted trade talks between Canada and the U.S. because of his sudden objection over the Digital Services Tax (DST) which the Canadian government abruptly dropped without a fight. Here is what I wrote at the time:
Well, so much for elbows up.
Trump basically told Carney to jump, and Carney asked him, "How high?"
I mean Carney did not even put up a fight. One would think they might have dropped the tax's retroactivity. But no. Trump got what he wanted and because of it Trump smells blood in the water and will ask for more.
For his part, Carney made a boilerplate statement about defending Canadian workers and businesses and pledging to continue to work with the United States to stop the scourge of fentanyl.
However, I suspect Trump will escalate things and make more demands (i.e. demand Canada end its supply management system for dairy and poultry farmers). Trump is counting on Carney to fold just like he did with the DST.
Scrapping the DST was never going to be enough for Trump. Ditto for Canada abolish supply management. Trump won't be satisfied until Canada becomes the 51st state.
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