Donald Trump’s imposition of a 25 percent tariff of Canadian goods, coupled with his threat to annex Canada as the fifty-first state, is one of the most antagonistic actions of the first months of his second presidency. The basic message has been clear: “We don’t need you” — but if Canada agrees to annexation, it will gain the benefits of US military and economic protection. Otherwise the country will be hung out to dry under the weight of punitive trade barriers, despite the existing free-trade agreement Trump himself negotiated.
Trump’s negotiating method remains unchanged from his days as a real estate and casino mogul: threaten to use all the economic and political tools you can muster to get others to accede to your demands, strike the best possible deal with those who yield, and move on to the next transaction. Neither his past business bankruptcies nor his electoral defeat by Joe Biden altered this approach. The weaker an opponent is perceived to be, the more aggressive the threats. In Trump’s eyes, Canada poses little challenge to US economic dominance.
While many Canadians once worried about their country’s growing economic and cultural dependence on the United States — especially in the years leading up to the free-trade agreements of the late 1980s — these conditions have since become an accepted reality for most. By many measures, Canada is now more economically and culturally dependent on the US than any other country, a fact Trump and his allies fully understand and are willing to exploit.
Trump’s enthusiasm for…
Auteur: D. W. Livingstone
