Trump Is Threatening America’s Friends and Foes*

The United States is attacking its neighbors. And this is only the first salvo.

President Donald Trump has triggered a trade war with Canada and Mexico. Neither of the countries, which are linked to the United States by a free trade agreement renegotiated during his first presidency, had any chance of averting the 25% tariffs announced on almost all imports. Trump has given the rest of the world a taste of what he has in store for them, whether they be a friend or enemy. It could happen to any of them. These tariffs are just the first salvo.

In Canada’s case, it has never been clear why the country is being punished. Trump’s preposterous excuse is his claim that foreigners and the deadly opioid fentanyl are flowing into the U.S. illegally over the Canadian border. In comparison to the influx of people that enter the U.S. via the Mexican border and the large numbers who initially arrive on a visa and stay past the expiration date (like Trump’s wife, Melania, for example), the number of migrants entering the U.S. from Canada is small.

The amount of fentanyl arriving from Canada is also vanishingly small, an estimated 0.2% of the total volume coming onto the market, which itself grew out of the United States’ own irresponsible policies. In any event, the U.S. is responsible for securing its own border and, not least, for ensuring that no undesirables and nothing undesirable comes into the country. In effect, Trump is punishing other countries for the U.S. government’s dereliction of one if its core duties.

Trump’s hostile move is likely to tip Canada’s economy into recession. The U.S. is doing this to a country that fought alongside it as a NATO partner in Afghanistan after 9/11, a country that has helped the U.S. put out major wildfires and arrested the chief financial officer of Chinese company Huawei for violating U.S. sanctions at the request of a U.S. court. Canada is paying a high price for its loyalty.

Next to No Options Available to the Countries Concerned

The fact that the countries affected by these tariffs have next to no options to avert them is proof enough of their brutally crude nature. Mexico and Canada are already cooperating with respect to border security and combating drug trafficking. While the U.S. may have legitimate doubts about Mexico’s commitment, given the power of the drug cartels, you cannot similarly criticize Canada. One is bound to conclude Trump has other motives. It’s hard to completely discount the idea that imperialist ambitions underpinned his faux tongue-in-cheek comments about annexing Canada as the 51st state of America.

Moreover, Trump is generally obsessed with the idea of replacing revenues raised from taxes with customs duties and letting foreigners fund the U.S. federal budget. Someone once whispered in his ear that Americans had it best at the end of the 19th century when the economy was booming and customs revenues sustained a large part of the U.S. budget. Historians almost universally agree, however, that this boom did not occur because of, but rather despite, high tariffs and thanks to huge advances in productivity during the industrial revolution and mass immigration at that time. But Trump doesn’t believe that.

It’s also disturbing that Trump does not care a jot for treaties like the North American free trade agreement (officially titled the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement), even though it was negotiated on his watch. This is especially troubling because such important trading partners as Germany and its companies will have to live with the risk that trade deals concluded with the United States might no longer be worth all the effort. It is indeed remarkable that imports from China will only attract a 10% duty, although Trump had in fact threatened to impose a 60% tariff on them. The burdens imposed on China, with all its dishonest trading practices, cyberattacks and espionage attempts, are roughly similar to those levied against longstanding U.S. ally and partner Canada. It all signals a new era.

The brutal tariffs announced on imports from neighboring countries are hostile, unethical, stupid and arbitrary by design. Americans will also feel their impact, as paying for gas to run their cars, heating their homes and buying groceries become more expensive. They will find they can no longer afford certain automobiles because the entire North American manufacturing process involves up to eight border crossings. If Mexico and Canada retaliate with their own tariffs, a vehicle's cost will rise with every border crossing it makes. There is also the risk of Canada and Mexico falling into economic crisis, which could, among other things, bring about increased levels of immigration to the U.S. — just the opposite of what Trump wants to achieve. This president is behaving like the leader of a nation who believes he can get by in this dangerous world without having any friends. It smacks of extraordinary ignorance.

*Editor's note: This article is available in its original German version through a paid subscription.