As Trump threatens more tariffs on Canada - 35% this time, supposedly starting August 1st, unless of course that changes - he is still trying to tie it to the perceived egregious supply of fentanyl and other drugs from Canada to USA.
As had been noted before, months ago, the flow of fentanyl from Canada to the United States is miniscule - of the order of 0.2%, according to the US's own Customs and Border Control agency - with 99% of it actually coming in from the Mexican border. Maybe he's getting the two countries mixed up? Easily done.
In fact, there are many more drugs (principally methamphetamine, cocaine and fentanyl) flowing from the US to Canada than the other way round. Not to mention guns and other bad stuff
I'm sure someone has explained all this to him, although given how shit-scared all his staff seem to be of saying anything that might be seen to contradict him, that is by no means certain. Mark Carney should be very sure to mention it to him, though. It's possible, just possible, that he doesn't know.
But we should be past the stage of trying to find rhyme or reason in all this. The US tariffs, in general terms, are supposed to be about correcting the "unfair" trade balances countries have with America. But Brazil just got slapped with a 50% tariff, and they have a negative trade balance with the US.
The justification Trump uses there is that he objects to the country's treatment of ex-President Jair Bolsonaro. Bolsonaro, an old Trump buddy and copycat, and fellow far-right populist, is currently on trial for trying to stage a Trump-style coup after he lost the vote in the last Brazilian elections. So, nothing to do with economics, then. This is public policy based on whims, grudges and the Old Boy's Network. And the rates - 25%, 30%, 35%, 50% - completely random.
The whole world, apart from some Republican extremists in the USA, are now heartily sick of the whole random Trump tariff thing. A world that was operating, at least macro-ecconomically, quite well before he showed up, is now in tatters, all due to the misguided beliefs of one man. He has set one country against another, and destroyed any goodwill the world bore towards the USA.
History will certaunly judge him badly, whatever he.says, but in the meantime, we have to live through that history.
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