That may well be true, but there’s no need to paint ALL of the USA’s international customers and suppliers as enemies.
I’ve said before, the dairy trade between Canada and the USA is another example of a failure to communicate.
A businessman who is so transactional that they think success is measured by how hard they’re screwing everybody else over for the win, eventually gets a bad reputation. That was always the worry from Trump sceptics when President Trump was elected to his first term.
But it wasn’t like that in POTUS’ first term. He did brilliantly.
President Trump negotiated the quotas and the tariffs with Canada, and both Canada and the USA were very happy with the deal. It wasn’t the only success. He reached rapprochements with people who are notoriously difficult. Even Kim Jong Un.
That’s good business.
Which is why it’s so bizarre that President Trump has gone in like a bull in a china shop. Tariffing China on certain products makes perfect sense; tariffing Reunion Island sugarcane doesn’t, and making Canada out to be dealing unfairly despite complying fully with the deal Trump’s first administration brokered and lauded as a Great Deal doesn’t make sense.
And that’s compounded by all that nonsense about Governor Trudeau and trolling the Canucks with talk about them becoming the 51st state.
Canada didn’t ever express an interest in becoming part of the USA even when the relationship between the USA and Canada was extremely cordial; as if they’d be suddenly more amenable to the idea after two months of hearing relentless verbal abuse alongside a breathtaking misrepresentation of the existing trade deal... By the same guy who hailed its brilliance only a few years ago.
Let’s look at Canada. Our neighbors to the north are terrible neighbors, as far as free trade goes. How many Canadian banks are in the US? BMO Harris, which has thousands of branches all over the US. RBC Bans, CIBC Bank, TD Bank to name a few. These banks have thousands of branches all over the US. Now, how many American banks are in Canada? Zero. They don’t allow it. We should tell them either you allow our banks in your country or we kick your out of our country.