Harrop: Trump has no sense of damage from tariff threats

By Froma Harrop / Creators.com

Never mind how Donald Trump’s threatened trade war ultimately pans out. Though a 25 percent border tax would hurt the economies of Canada and Mexico more, Americans would also feel the ill-effects. But America is already suffering. Start with the shame of menacing and sliming our good neighbors with lies.

Even if it’s part of a twisted game of negotiation — Trump has already put off the war with Mexico and Canada by a month — the economic damage is lasting. (Trump’s game is to jump on some small concession to declare victory.) Meanwhile, Made-in-Trump’s-USA is becoming a toxic label.

Canadians recently booed “The Star-Spangled Banner” at a hockey game in Ottawa. Something tells us they don’t want to become the 51st state.

Now Canada and Mexico could retaliate against American exports, starting with steel, pork and bourbon. They would focus on economic interests in Trump country, a reflection of their understanding that much of America shares their mystification, if not horror, at this sadistic show.

But these trading partners have more subtle weapons than slapping their own tariffs on American products. They can decide that the United States is an unreliable trading partner and look for replacements.

America’s Midwest refineries rely on crude from Alberta. Trump says Canadian energy would get a special deal, a tariff of only 10 percent. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says even 10 percent is not OK. She likes to point out that if you subtract energy from the trade numbers, the U.S. would probably have a trade surplus with Canada.

For all of Trump’s sniveling about the price of oil, it would go higher if Canada, our largest foreign supplier, decided to sell it to someone else. Canada is already considering ways to move the product west and then on to Asia.

The best-selling beer in the U.S. is Modelo Especial from Mexico. It is made from barley harvested in places like Idaho, Montana and North Dakota and $16 million worth of hops grown in Washington state. About 75 percent of U.S. barley exports go to Mexico. But Argentina, Chile and Brazil also grow barley and would probably be very happy to take over those sales. And the loss of that business would hurt American farmers.

Note that none of these responses involve retaliatory tariffs toward American products.

The North American economy has been integrated to our benefit as well as that of our neighbors. A “Made in America” vehicle, for example, crosses borders several times before the final product rolls to the showroom. This production sharing lets things get done in the most cost-efficient places. It is also done in Europe and Asia.

Contrary to Trump’s baloney excuse for making economic war against our neighbors, Canada is the source of almost no fentanyl entering this country. And the fentanyl that comes over the border from Mexico enters through legal ports of entry, hidden in truck tires and suitcases. If that’s the case, isn’t it the job of U.S. authorities to check those tires?

Same goes for undocumented migrants. Of course, the border was already peaceful by the time of Trump’s inauguration. Before the tariff standoff, Canada and Mexico had already stepped up helping control these migration flows on their sides of the border.

The usually Trump-friendly Wall Street Journal has called this “The Dumbest Trade War in History.” That it isn’t in our interests doesn’t even seem to matter. The crisis serves Trump’s unhinged need to be constantly at the center of the world’s attention and his sick pleasure in extracting pain. War or no war, he’s already achieved both.

But the pain felt by Americans trapped by a leadership in Washington that has gone haywire endures. And when the cruelty gets dumped on our friends, the pain starts with shame.