Like a striped disc, Donald Trump returned to the yet another threat of surcharge of 35 % on Canadian products, forcing Mark Carney to postpone the deadline for a new agreement and to convene his ministers to an emergency meeting on Tuesday. This is only the most recent episode of the Trump soap opera, so threats punctuate Canadian political life today. Here is a summary of his blackmail attempts to Canada since its election in November.
• Read also: 35% Trump prices: “We are working for the revised deadline of August 1,” says Mark Carney
• Read also: New threat from Trump: Carney summons his office for an emergency meeting on Tuesday
• Read also: “Trump is not a credible interlocutor”: the 35% prices imposed in Canada are only a “Extraordinary bad faith negotiation tool”
November 25th – Donald Trump is launching his first big threat to his two neighbors: 25 % prices on all their exports from Canada and Mexico if they do not attack fentanyl traffic and illegal crossings on the border. He threatens his threat on February 1, shortly after his return to power. After a month’s postponement, they finally come into force in March.
February 10 – In addition to these global prices, Trump signs a plan to establish additional customs duties of 25 % on steel and aluminum, including Canada. When Doug Ford promises a surcharge on Canadian electricity, Trump gets started and threatens to double his prices on steel and aluminum: Ford comes back, Trump too. The 25 % scheduled become reality on March 12 and Canada Riposte. On June 4, Trump doubles these prices, which now reach 50 %. Months later, on July 8, the president announced that his next target will be copper.
February 14 – Less than a week after the announcement on steel and aluminum, it is the turn of the automotive industry. Trump announces customs duties “about 25 %” on vehicle imports. He puts them on the ice on March 5, but formalized them on April 3, with notable exceptions for certain parts and the vehicles built with more than 75 % of American parts.
June 27 – Trump abruptly ends the negotiations however “intensive” with Mark Carney, whom he had just reviewed as part of the G7 in Alberta. The President quotes the tax on digital services of 3 % on web giants as irritating, which was to allow Ottawa to collect its first million in early July. The threat operates: Carney cancels this tax two days later, a controversial decision which however allows the return to the negotics table.
July 10 – And rebelote on fentanyl. In a letter addressed to Mark Carney, Donald Trump recycles this pretext to threaten us with new 35 % tariffs if Canada does not embark on fentanyl traffic. This is a pure pretext since seizures on the Canadian-American border have for less than 1 % of the fentanyl captured in the United States. This salvo nevertheless forced Mark Carney to postpone the “deadline” for a conclusion of a commercial agreement on August 1.