Trump issues blunt message to Canadian companies as US trade war reaches new level
Donald Trump has issued a new statement regarding the ongoing tariff war with Canada, but this time made a swipe at previous US leaders.
Canada and America are embroiled in yet another tariff war. Donald Trump believes that America's neighbor has long been taking advantage of the US.
With this in mind, he decided to impose 50 percent tariffs on numerous Canadian goods. Trump has said that from January 2027 onwards, there will be hiked tariffs on cars, trucks, automotive parts, and steel.
In retaliation, Canada threatened roughly $20 billion of retaliatory tariffs on US goods, which will come into force on September 8.
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Now the POTUS, 80, is encouraging Canadian companies to uproot their businesses and move to the US to avoid these tariffs.
"Let all Canadian Companies that are doing business with America move to the United States, immediately," he penned on Truth Social on August 30.
Taking a swipe at the Biden administration (and likely the Obama administration too), Trump went on: "Many of them are Companies that moved out years ago due to stupid U.S. Leadership. When you move back, there are no TARIFFS!"
Dr. Eric Golson, an economic warfare specialist and Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Surrey, has weighed in on the ongoing back-and-forth between Canada and the US and said there are 'two ways of looking at this mess'.
"The first – we are entering a trade spiral, where hard-nosed adversaries (who were once very good friends) will keep adding tariffs to each others' products, with trade volumes ultimately significantly reduced," he told UNILAD.
Basically this means that both parties will keep imposing relation tariffs on one another which will ultimately raise the cost of consumer goods.
Dr. Golson went on: "One of the triggers of the Great Depression was a high American tariff with close trading partners which set off a trade war; there are lots of parallels here with a global economy which already feels very shaky."
The second option? That Trump will back down eventually as it's unlikely he'll want American consumers to be hit with more expensive Canadian goods ahead of the mid-terms.
"Faced with midterms, a lot of bad press and a view by most Americans that the trade war is only raising their prices, Trump will likely choose to back down with the Canadians and claim it as a win to lower consumer prices," Dr. Golson suggested.
Away from the tariffs, Trump has made a huge swipe at Canada in a different way – by renaming Lake Ontario.
The POTUS signed an executive order officially renaming the lake as 'Lake America' and it's gone down like a lead balloon with Canadians (understandably).
Topics: Donald Trump, Canada, Tariffs, US News, Business
Niamh Shackleton