At a campaign rally in North Dakota Friday night, Trump, already totally “pissed off,” according to Senator Lindsey Graham, over an anonymous OP/ED in the New York Times, took a few minutes in his usual campaign rants to target Canada.
Trump’s bellicose trade rhetoric took center-stage as he asserted that he believes Canada is ripping off the U.S. and that if a deal can’t be reached, he’ll apply a 20 percent tariff on cars. “In some countries, including Canada, a tax on cars would be the ruination of the country. That’s how big it is. The ruination of the country,” he said. “Nafta has been the worst trade deal ever.”
Trump’s comments came after talks between Canada and the U.S. again reached a stalemate on Friday, although Canadian minister Chrystia Freeland says negotiations are in a ‘continuous’ phase, according to Bloomberg News, whatever that is supposed to mean.
The Canadian delegation left Washington Friday evening, returning to Canada, according to a Canadian government official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. But apparently, Trump, already angry about everything that has happened this week in his administration, began discussing the NAFTA deal while en route to the campaign fund-raiser.
On Air Force One, Trump complained, “Canada has been ripping us off for a long time. Now, they’ve got to treat us fairly. I don’t want to do anything bad to Canada. I can — all I have to do is tax their cars, it would be devastating. If I tax cars coming in from Canada, it would be devastating,” he continued, according to a pool reporter traveling with him.
Trump may be a moron, and incapable of sitting in the Oval Office, but he is not stupid. He has reached the pinnacle of power in the business world by using threats, and he has figured out how to hurt a country, treating it as he would a business adversary, by threatening where it hurts the most – A country’s pocketbook.
Trump claims that threatening auto tariffs leaves countries shaking in their boots. He claims that whenever tariffs on autos is mentioned, negotiators from other countries surrender to his desires: “We’ll do it! We’ll do it! We’ll agree! We’ll agree!” With Trump’s delusions of grandeur, he must love to picture in his mind Prime Minister Trudeau groveling at his feet.
Actually, a 20 percent tariff like “Big Bad Wolf” Trump is threatening would not be the ruination of Canada. Canada exported $57 billion in automobiles and $15 billion in auto parts to the U.S. last year, according to Canadian data. That is more than four times the value of the steel and aluminum exports Trump has already subjected to tariffs.
According to Global News, economists are saying the tariffs could slow Canada’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by one percent, and the effects could be doubled in Ontario — even sending the province into a recession.
It seems that to make the NAFTA deal, Canada would have to make concessions on dairy products. White House Economic Adviser Larry Kudlow, speaking Friday on Fox Business, said, “The word that continues to block the deal is m-i-l-k. The United States would rather have a trade deal with Canada, but it has to be a good deal.”
Speaking earlier in the day on Friday, Trump, who calls himself the “great deal-maker” said, “We’ll see what happens,” he said. “Look, everybody wants to deal with us. We’ve never had a president that dealt.”
For those who may have forgotten the end of the fairy tale, the “Big Bad Wolf’ ended up the loser.
