Ronald Reagan, Republican president from 1981-89, said when protectionism rose in America:
“Our peaceful trading partners are not our enemies; they are our allies. We should beware of the demagogues who are ready to declare a trade war against our friends — weakening our economy, our national security, and the entire free world — all while cynically waving the American flag.”
Bring on the day when furious countries refuse to trade with U.S.
By Don Braid
The dumbest trade war in history.” So says the Wall Street Journal, a solidly conservative U.S. publication, in a blistering editorial about Trump tariffs.Ronald Reagan, Republican president from 1981-89, said when protectionism rose in America:“Our peaceful trading partners are not our enemies; they are our allies.
We should beware of the demagogues who are ready to declare a trade war against our friends — weakening our economy, our national security, and the entire free world — all while cynically waving the American flag.”Reagan couldn’t have known that Donald Trump, then a New York real-estate hustler, would sink to the pit of American demagoguery and threaten the entire western order with his protectionist fantasies.
Those comments remind us there is opposition in the U.S. to Trump’s crazy dream of tariffing other countries so heavily that Americans will no longer pay any taxes.President Trump is playing with forces far stronger than he might expect.The domestic backlash will grow as Americans begin to pay far more for imported goods.Resistance will further escalate if he extends the tariffs to more nations, threatening the flow of trade in the entire western world.Over time those countries, including Canada, will find new markets.
They will ally with each other as trading blocs that work around the U.S.Already, such a bond is possible with Canada, Mexico, the threatened European Union (certainly Denmark), and even newly tariffed China, if we care to make that connection.It would be a grand thing for a consortium of countries to shut down trade with Trump’s belligerent America. Tariffs don’t make any money if nobody sells you anything.This planet is now packed with advanced, creative economies — Germany, France, Australia, Canada, the U.K. They would have enormous power if they worked together.
Turning the tables on Trump is a revenge dream for now, but no crazier than his mad belief that he can control the world trading system with tariffs designed to wreck other countries.On Saturday the president declared the Canadian border a national emergency. That’s the one crossed peacefully every day, both ways, by more than 400,000 Canadians and Americans.
Photo courtesy CNN
The declaration is a ruse that gives him authority to impose tariffs outside the usual system.He slams Canada with 25 per cent tariffs, the sole exception being a 10 per cent levy on Canadian energy.But the tariffs may be working already — for us.
Trump has awakened Canada to the danger of our tight economic ties to the United States.There’s talk of new pipelines — almost a banned word only a couple of years ago. Premiers are promising fewer trade barriers between provinces.Premier David Eby, calling the tariffs an act of economic warfare, directed provincial authorities to stop buying American products and find Canadian sources instead.
He also ordered all U.S. spirits off liquor store shelves.Late Saturday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a tough suite of 25 per cent retaliatory tariffs. He also said no export taxes would be levied on energy – a big win for Alberta.Premier Danielle Smith said all proceeds from retaliatory Canadian tariffs should go to areas most damaged by the Trump levies.“Canada can and must now come together in an unprecedented effort to preserve the livelihoods and futures of our people and expand our political and trade relationships across the globe,” she said in a statement.“We can no longer afford to be so heavily reliant on one primary customer. We must stop limiting our prosperity and inflicting economic wounds on ourselves.“Rather, we must unleash the true economic potential of our country, which possesses more wealth and natural resources than any other nation on earth.”This will be a long, hard job, but worth the struggle.
Trump may give us the will to finally do it. A crazed president must never again have the power to wound us so grievously.In Ottawa Saturday night, the crowd booed the Star-Spangled Banner at the start of an NHL game between the Senators and Minnesota Wild.Not the wisest reaction, but a sure sign of how ugly this struggle will be. We can use that anger to forge a new, resilient, self-sustaining Canada.