Trudeau can’t be trusted to deal with Trump’s tariff threat

Article content

If past performance indicates future results, then Canadians need to be worried about the Trudeau government handling the Trump tariff threat properly.

Article content

Recommended Videos

Article content

Many Canadians will remember that we went through the tariff issue with Trump in his first term and it didn’t go well.

Though, if you believe most of what you read in the Canadian media, and you shouldn’t, Canada was victorious in the fight against Trump’s tariffs by invoking our own tariffs on bourbon, playing cards and Heinz ketchup. That’s not exactly how things went down and the fact that most of Canada’s media won’t report on this or figure it out is rather worrisome.

It also raises questions about whether their coverage of the current fight will be accurate.

In 2018, as in 2024, Trump said he was bringing in tariffs for a specific issue – we should listen to what he is saying about that issue.

Article content

Today, we are being told that unless we deal with illegal border crossings, drugs and terrorist suspects going between Canada and the United States we will face a 25% tariff on all Canadian goods entering the U.S. More on the validity of Trump’s claims and concerns in a moment, but let’s just say that we should believe him.

In 2018, the tariffs were brought in at the end of May on Canadian steel and aluminum using what is called a Section 232, which allowed the Trump administration to declare Canadian products a threat to American national security.

Now, the idea that Canadian steel and aluminum were threats to America’s security was a laughable claim, but it’s not why we got the tariffs put on us. The Trump administration was upfront with the Trudeau government as far back as April 2017 that they had an issue with Chinese steel and aluminum being dumped into Canada at cheap prices and then shipped south to the U.S. as if it was a Canadian product.

Article content

Article content

We had 13 months notice to fix a problem the Americans identified, which was also in violation of our trade agreements with them, and we did nothing until the tariffs were being put in place.

On May 30, 2018, Justin Trudeau’s then Finance Minister Bill Morneau put out a statement saying Canada was “bolstering efforts to prevent transshipment and diversion of unfairly priced foreign steel and aluminum into the North American market.”

“Canada is vigilant, determined and proactive about protecting our workers and industries from unfair trade practices,” Morneau said at the time.

Article content

Just not vigilant enough to act before the tariffs came into force. The Trudeau government was warned more than a year in advance and didn’t act to protect Canadian workers or industries because Trudeau was worried about offending Beijing by stopping their dumping practices.

A month after the U.S. tariffs kicked in, the Trudeau government enacted their own tariffs on a wide array of American products. If you listen to the popular telling, it was the counter tariffs on bourbon and ketchup that won the day, but that’s just not true.

Both countries would lift their tariffs in May 2019 and the official joint statement from both governments made it clear, the issue was resolved by Canada agreeing to deal with China’s dumping of steel and aluminum products.

Article content

The statement says Canada and the United States agreed to work together to prevent “the importation of aluminum and steel that is unfairly subsidized and/or sold at dumped prices” and to prevent “the transshipment of aluminum and steel made outside of Canada or the United States to the other country.”

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Play Video

If only the Trudeau government had listened in April 2017 when the Americans first raised this issue. Instead, they ignored it to placate their friends in Beijing. They allowed Canadian workers to be hurt by the tariffs for a year and then finally did the right thing.

So, now that Trump is about to take office for the second time, he’s asking us to fix our border or face tariffs. Some Canadians just want us to thump our chest and fight with more tariffs and claim there is no problem.

Article content

As I’ve been documenting for weeks, using official data from the Canada-U.S. border, illegal crossings from Canada to the United States are up 82% over two years, 87% of terror suspects caught trying to enter the United States cross at the Canadian border and we are seen as an increasing drug importation problem by both the current Biden administration and the incoming Trump team.

We can deny these issues, try and explain them away, or we can deal with them. Experience shows if we deal with the issue, we won’t face the tariffs.

Experience also shows that given the chance to do the right thing, Trudeau will take another path, one that he sees as beneficial to him politically.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Play Video

This past Monday and Tuesday, in two different public appearances, Trudeau was taking shots at Trump’s election. His comments lamenting Trump beating Kamala Harris made headlines in the United States and were surely seen by Trump.

During a conference call on Wednesday, Canada’s premiers had to tell Trudeau bluntly that his comments were not helpful at this time.

It’s sad that almost a month into dealing with this issue, the only leadership we are seeing is coming from provincial premiers who are devising and announcing their own plans to deal with the border.

Right now, our PM seems to want a fight with Trump to boost his political fortunes. If that costs Canadian jobs or makes life more expensive for you, that seems fine by Justin Trudeau.

blilley@postmedia.com

Article content