Ontario Premier Doug Ford attends a signing of a memorandum of understanding with Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker at the U.S.-Canada Summit in Toronto in June 2024.
(THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young)
Canada has also responded by parroting American accusations against Mexico. Ontario Premier Doug Ford suggested Canada consider a bilateral trade agreement that would squeeze Mexico out of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, while expressing tentative support for the trilateral trade deal, chastised Mexico for “not acting the way that Canada and the U.S. are when it comes to its economic relationship with China.” This is despite the fact that Canada has been as devoted to trade with China as Mexico is.
But when Trump announced at the end of November that he intended to impose tariffs on both Canada and Mexico, and also demanded the end of illegal migration and drugs across the border, Canadian elected officials were stunned. Ford expressed open dismay, saying: “To compare us to Mexico is the most insulting thing I have ever heard from our friends and closest allies.”
Within days, Canada pledged more spending on border security in an apparent effort to mollify the U.S.
Stoking American anxieties
What’s at stake in Trump’s populist ideology is not just economics, but the global status of the U.S.
With China on the rise, this status is seen as under threat, sparking American anxieties. The election outcome suggested a nostalgic desire to regain America’s past “greatness” while eliminating any obstacles standing in its way.
But although Trump has proven adept at exploiting this desire, the irrationality of his populist politics will likely prove counter-productive. Rather than addressing structural American economic and trade problems — for example, unprecedented income inequality and pervasive precarious employment — the emphasis is on flexing muscle and subordinating others.
This is a classic psychoanalytic maneuver: instead of attending to your own failures, you displace them onto a stereotypical other — China, migrants, Muslims, etc.
This is evident in Trump’s attempts to frame Mexicans as “bad hombres,” spearheading an “Invasion of our Country!” in the form of drugs and illegal immigrants, all the while allegedly making “a fortune from the US.”
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As Mexico appeases Trump, migrants bear the brunt
This despite the fact that, while experiencing economic gains in recent years, Mexico has trailed well behind both the U.S. and Canada in productivity and income growth over the past 30 years.
Trump’s emphasis on potential Chinese investment in the Mexican auto industry — there is currently only one Chinese-owned auto plant in Mexico — diverts attention from the persistent failure of the U.S.-based auto industry to keep up with Chinese technology.
But Trump’s plans to prey on American fears via trade protectionism are likely to backfire. They may temporarily buoy nationalist sentiment and provide relief to some U.S. manufacturers, but soon American consumers will suffer higher prices while producers could be hit by more expensive oil and gas from Canada.
China could also target U.S. agriculture in response to renewed Trump tariffs, negatively affecting the same rural areas that have provided political support for Trump.
A combine is shown harvesting soybeans in November 2023 in Lynnville, Ky. Chinese retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. could hurt American soybean and other agricultural producers.
(AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)
The irrationality of populist desire
The irrationality of Trump’s populist protectionist policies is plain for all to see. No wonder Chinese officials point out that “no one will win a trade [or] tariff war.”
As for Canada, it is unlikely that appeasing Trump or betraying Mexico will do much to placate the president-elect. To the contrary, these efforts could well be taken as evidence that more bullying is in order and further concessions can yet be extracted.
Trump’s latest taunts to Trudeau, in fact, prove that escalated bullying will be a common presidential tactic in the months and years ahead — as if we needed more.
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Publish date : 2024-12-10 07:16:00
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