Trump Escalates His One-Man Trade War on Canada, a Top Ally and Trading Partner, With New 50% Tariffs

The Supreme Court’s ruling against Trump’s first attempts to impose sweeping tariffs (under IEEPA) has not dissuaded the president from trying to find a different legal fig leaf to accomplish the same goal, or from using tariffs as a punitive measure against countries whose leaders displease him. The president’s latest target, once again, is Canada.

The New York Times reports:

On Monday, President Trump added new 50 percent tariffs on a slate of Canadian goods, adding more pressure on one of the United States’ top trading partners and further straining a once close alliance. The move by Mr. Trump was a significant escalation of the trade war between Canada and the United States that he started well over a year ago.

These tariffs, as well as those that came before them, violate the trade agreement that United States, Canada and Mexico signed during Mr. Trump’s first term.

While Mr. Trump threatened to bring tariffs against Canada last week over wildfire smoke that was crossing the border, he has not linked the new tariffs to that. Rather, his administration is using an obscure, never tested piece of trade law to penalize Canada, in the view of the administration, for discriminating against the United States. … Mr. Trump is imposing the tariffs under a long-unused statute, Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, which allow him to impose tariffs of up to 50 percent on countries that have taken discriminatory trade measures against the United States. The bill also introduced high tariffs that exacerbated the collapse of global trade during the Great Depression. Several legal experts expect a challenge in American courts.

Donald Trump remains completely single-minded in his determination to destroy the longstanding friendship between the United States and Canada, as well as to impose tariffs by any means necessary. We will, presumably, have to wait and see whether the Supreme Court will step in once again to save Trump from himself.

The Executive Watch is a project of the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism, and its flagship publication The UnPopulist, to track in an ongoing way the abuses of the power of the American presidency. It sorts these abuses into five categories: Personal Grift, Political Corruption, Presidential Retribution, Power Consolidation, and Policy Illegality. Click the category of interest to get an overview of all the abuses under it.

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