Shakedowns, bullying business, trade outrages: election-bound Trump spreads chaos far and wide

OTTAWA—Whatever your political stripe, you have to have some sympathy for Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland. In the face of President Donald Trump’s plan to scrap NAFTA if it could not be renegotiated along lines more advantageous to the U.S., Freeland led Ottawa’s 18-month campaign to try to build some kind of rapport with the White House anti-trade zealots. Dodging what Freeland called an “existential threat” for Canada’s trade-dependent economy, Canadian negotiators eventually worked out a new pact with the U.S. and Mexico that debuted July 1. A month later, in a political stunt meant to burnish his America First credentials, the president displayed his contempt for bilateral trade relations, Canada, and the so-called progress evinced by NAFTA 2.0 by re-imposing 10 per cent tariffs on Canadian aluminum imports. Trump said he did so because Canadian aluminum was being dumped into the U.S., a claim repudiated on all sides, including by the leading American aluminum industry association. Ontario Premier Doug Ford, once a Trump fan, spoke for a lot of Canadians when he called the latest U.S. protectionist move a stab in the back against an ally. The federal government announced plans to introduce $3.6-billion in retaliatory tariffs that will be carefully reciprocal—a means of striking back without sparking escalating punishment from Trump. Despite that, Canadians should be ready for further trade ambushes on flimsy national security grounds, including possibly renewed tariffs on Canadian steel. The president hinted last week that more nationalistic trade measures were on the way. In that sense, Canadians are little different from everyone else between now and the Nov. 3 presidential election—and this is true whether we’re talking trade, business, or diplomacy. As a desperate Trump seeks any possible ploy to fuel a reversal of his weak poll numbers, the chaos is rolling out from the White House across the U.S. and the world in seemingly endless waves. Just in the last few days, the president has spawned massive confusion at home about what, if anything, his fellow Americans might receive in the way of new financial help as they continue to struggle with an out-of-control COVID-19 pandemic. With the Republicans in the U.S. Senate holding up the next round of emergency aid because they want, among other things, to slash supplemental support for the unemployed from $600 a week to $200 a week, many of the 30 million Americans receiving unemployment support, as well as others, could lose their houses or face eviction now that the previous tranche of COVID aid has lapsed. In keeping with his increasing use of executive orders, Trump responded to the Congressional standoff with his own COVID-19 support measures. A hodgepodge of iffy, conditional proposals, it was largely a symbolic power grab aimed at wooing voters as much as helping those damaged by the virus-fed recession. Senior Congressional Democrats said afterwards they were ready to renew negotiations on aid legislation, but huge differences remained, with Republicans favouring only a $1-trillion package versus the Democrats’ proposed $3-trillion. Trump has also injected a previously unimaginable element of uncertainty into the conduct of global business with his sudden move to ban popular TikTok or force its sale. The administration, which as part of its pre-election positioning is ramping up its cold war with China on all available fronts, based its edict on security concerns about the Beijing-headquartered app. But there’s also a revenge factor. TikTok amplifies young peoples’ ridicule of the president and was the vehicle behind the hoax that led to the embarrassingly low turnout at Trump’s much-hyped Tulsa, Okla., rally last month. And, as if to justify those who say Trump conducts national affairs like a mafia boss, the president demanded that whoever buys TikTok give the U.S. government a payoff, a shakedown so outside the bounds of any known ethical or legal standard as to be almost laughable. U.S. corporations can only guess what’s coming as Trump manipulates business, the economy, and international commerce for political purposes over the next few months. And what is most astounding is the lack of outrage in the U.S. about the president’s abuse of power and disregard for the rule of law. With the almost total acquiescence of Republicans, things have reached a point where Trump makes no bones about running the U.S. any way he wants. His transgressions against accepted traditions of governance, democracy and international relations can only be expected to increase, with the attendant rise in conflict, tension and uncertainty in the U.S. and abroad, as the presidential election nears, making for a long, bumpy few months until Nov. 3. Les Whittington is a regular columnist for The Hill Times. The Hill Times

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Shakedowns, bullying business, trade outrages: election-bound Trump spreads chaos far and wide

Canadians should be ready for further trade ambushes on flimsy national security grounds, including possibly renewed tariffs on Canadian steel.

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