Donald Trump has found a new way to impose his beloved tariffs: accuse every country in the world of abusing forced labour.
What happened: The Trump administration is readying a new wave of tariffs on 60 of America’s trading partners, using allegations of forced labour in each country to legally justify the levies. The tariffs are expected to be in the 10%–12.5% range.
The Supreme Court deemed Trump’s method of imposing tariffs through emergency presidential powers illegal and struck them down in February. Trump slapped temporary 10% levies on trade partners as a stopgap, but they’re set to expire on Friday.
Zoom out: On Monday, Trump announced a 50% tariff on ~US$20 billion worth of Canadian goods with no carve-out for CUSMA-compliant products. To impose those tariffs, Trump is taking a different legal tack, invoking a 1930s trade act that has never been used before by a U.S. president.
Some of the tariffed products feel like an American’s idea of an average Canadian shopping list: hockey sticks, down coats, and Christmas ornaments, to name a few.
Prime Minister Mark Carney said yesterday that he and Trump spoke on the phone and agreed to intensify talks on a new trade deal in the wake of the tariffs.
Why it matters: As we’ve seen time and time again, Trump uses tariffs (or the threat of them) as leverage. With Canada and the U.S. in CUSMA negotiations, the 50% levy may well be a pressure point to tilt those talks in the U.S.'s favour.
Our take: Trump has threatened tariffs on Canada more times than we can count, for reasons ranging from not certifying U.S.-made jets quickly enough to the Ontario government’s Ronald Reagan TV ad to cutting any “deal with China,” and even wildfire smoke. So far, he has followed through on few of those threats, giving us plenty of reason to think that pattern will continue. —LA
