https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/august-24-2026
"On Friday night, Prime Minister Mark Carney instructed Canadian negotiators to
walk away from talks with officials from the Trump administration over new
tariffs of 50% Trump had imposed on $28 billion of Canadian products. Carney
explained in a statement that “last-minute changes in the U.S. proposed terms
were unfair, uneconomic, and called into question the reliability of any deal.”
He has a point. From July 1, 2020, until Trump’s second term, the U.S., Canada,
and Mexico traded under the
United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA).
Negotiated under the first Trump administration, USMCA replaced the 1994
North
American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and was similar to it, creating one of
the world’s largest free trade zones.
The trade zone reinforced the close alliance between Canada and the U.S.,
enabling people in both countries to enjoy the longest demilitarized border in
the world stretching more than 5,000 miles (more than 8,000 kilometers) across
the entire North American continent. Canada and the U.S. have shared military
and defense capabilities, with the North American Aerospace Defense Command
(NORAD) operating since 1957 to detect aircraft or missiles, especially those
coming over the North Pole, that could prove a threat to the United States
(NORAD’s Santa Tracker originally was a way to make Americans aware of what
NORAD did).
But as soon as he won reelection in 2024, Trump began to emphasize that he
intended to use “economic force,” specifically tariffs, to pressure Canada into
joining the U.S. as its 51st state. He began to exercise that threat the day he
took office for the second time, saying he would put 25% tariffs on Canada.
This violation of his own trade agreement reflected the administration’s
abandonment of the principles of free trade and defensive alliances put in
place after World War II, replacing that system with one favored by autocrats
like Russia’s president Vladimir Putin, in which strong countries imposed
spheres of influence in their regions of the world.
Since then, Trump has sought to use the extraordinary economic power of the
United States to force Canada and other countries into subordinate
relationships. The recent threat against Canada came after Trump’s previous
tariffs either were struck down or expired. On July 20, Trump said he would use
Section 338 of the
Tariff Act of 1930, more commonly known as the
Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, to impose a 50% tariff on certain Canadian products.
No president had ever before invoked Section 338, which allows a president to
impose tariffs when a country discriminates against U.S. products relative to
its comparative treatment of other countries’ goods."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
