We should lament President Trump’s introduction of a new 10% tariff on Canadian aluminum imports. This is Trump’s foreign policy at its worst, unbound from strategy and used solely as a tool for short-term domestic populism.
Trump sees it differently. Announcing the restored tariffs during a campaign stop to Ohio on Thursday, the president suggested that Canada was flooding the U.S. market. His implication: that Canadian aluminum exporters are benefiting from government subsidies to unfairly undercut their U.S. competitors. One problem: it’s not true. China is the subsidy fat cat, Canada is not. The real issue here is that Canada is offering a better service at a lower cost and thus out-competing American aluminum manufacturers.
Of course, that’s not something Trump wants to admit. Certainly not in Ohio, where the president is running neck and neck with Joe Biden. Presenting these tariffs as a justified response to unjustified Canadian action, Trump hopes to consolidate supporters in the belief that he is again standing up for America, first.
Except, he really isn’t. Putting America first is incompatible with using foreign policy only as a tool of protectionism. In the long term, American prosperity and security rest on the advancement of our international interests and values. The retained support of allies is a critical component of that interest. This is especially true in relation to communist China, which seeks to supplant the U.S.-led liberal international order with a Beijing-led order of authoritarian feudalism. A major element of Xi Jinping’s strategy is the fraying of traditional American allies with his binary offer of massive investment or massive pressure.
It’s a strategy that has worked wonders in Europe. Not so much in Canada, where Justin Trudeau’s government has stood resolutely with America in confronting China. Trudeau can be rather self-absorbed, but facing immense Chinese intimidation over its U.S. warrant detention of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, Canada hasn’t wilted. Just this week, a pro-Beijing columnist hinted that were Canada to release Meng, it would quickly find grand Chinese reward. But as I say, Canada isn’t biting. It recognizes that what’s at stake with China is more than simple economics. It’s the future of international order.
Trump’s populist tariff waltz makes that Canadian understanding much harder to sustain. Canada, after all, is a democracy. So when an already unpopular American president is seen to reward loyalty with betrayal, it’s not exactly easy for Trudeau to keep pushing said loyalty. It would be far easier for the prime minister to find a veiled excuse to release Meng and then bathe in the billions of new Chinese investments which would soon after hit Canadian shores.
Put simply, these tariffs aren’t America first. They simply represent Trump at his worst.
