REGINA - I want to go back to the days when I could visit the USA on vacation without being shamed by the rest of Canada, but it appears none of that is going to happen any time soon.
Lately, the situation has escalated. Trump has moved away from the 51st State insults and all of that. Instead, he has turned his attention to hammering the rest of the whole wide world.
“Liberation Day” was quite something, with Trump holding up a board with the full list of countries that the USA was hitting with hefty reciprocal tariffs. It seemed like Trump was sparing no one, even tariffing a remote island full of penguins. I'll tell you, the trade negotiations by the penguins to lift the tariffs on them will surely be interesting.
Incredibly, Canada got spared the worst of it, although we still got the auto and steel tariffs. But most everyone else got a direct taste of what Canadians have had to put up with from south of the border for several months.
What used to be a North America-wide trade war has now gone worldwide, with significant tariffs hitting just about every country in the world. It’s like we now into the World War III of trade wars.
The reaction has been predictable. The White House has been bragging about countries capitulating and offering deals. Some countries, like Vietnam, have capitulated by offering zero tariffs.
But others, like China, hit back with countermeasures with 34 per cent tariffs on all American goods. Now Trump is threatening 50 per cent tariffs on China if these new counter tariffs are not removed. Essentially, this will decimate all trade with China. This will not sit well with a lot of businesses.
Then you have the European Union, which is threatening their own retaliatory tariffs but have also offered a zero-for-zero deal on industrial tariffs.
The shock and uncertainty from all of these tariffs have spooked the markets. Last Thursday and Friday saw the US stock markets tanking. On Sunday night I tuned in to the Asian market coverage and those exchanges were getting hammered.
Now, today, the Dow Jones fell 1700 points, only to rally when an erroneous report went out that the White House was about to do a 90-day pause. But then, the White House sent out word this was “fake news” and now the markets are in the tank again, with the Dow down close to 900 points as I am writing this morning.
Retirement funds have been flushed straight to the wastewater treatment plans all over the world for the past few days, and there is plenty of talk of stagflation, recession and even depression! Even oil is getting smashed, with the price of oil falling below $60 a barrel.
Yet the White House is seemingly oblivious to all of this negativity. They keep insisting this mayhem is needed in order to fix the trade imbalances and stop the USA from getting ripped off. But they seemingly can’t see the forest from the trees. Their big fix for the problem of trade deficits is to create even more problems by launching a trade war against the entire world.
In normal times, you would think a major market meltdown would catch the attention of the White House, but not here. They are too carried away by their pro-tariff ideology.
If they really wanted to address trade deficits, there were far more incremental, more diplomatic, and less disruptive ways to achieve it instead of launching an all-out worldwide trade war. This way, the White House has alienated countries across the world. The one tool countries have at their disposal is to hit the USA with counter-measures, except Trump has signalled counter-measures to the counter-measures.
Lobbying efforts seem fruitless in trying to talk sense to the President. Heck, people in Canada have tried. Everyone from premiers Doug Ford to Danielle Smith to Scott Moe has been down there in the USA, trying to persuade the lawmakers. Then you have to hope these lawmakers might persuade Trump, but that’s easier said than done.
You might think that internal pressure in the U.S. might change things. The U.S. Congress could easily show some leadership and step in to stop the madness, since their own constituents are the ones getting slammed by the stock market.
In fact, the Senate even voted to revoke the tariffs on Canada, but that would need the House to sign off on it to have a change to take effect. And unfortunately, even if they did say yes, President Trump would just veto it.
As I see it, this madness could keep on going to November of next year, when the US midterm elections happen. If Trump’s policies puts the USA into depression, voters will be in a mood for blood, and send MAGA Republicans packing.
After that, Trump will be right back fending off impeachment hearings in the House yet again — same as before.
Is it any wonder that ordinary people feel powerless these days? Our world leaders are running the world into the ground whether we have any say on it or not.
