More on the part of Donald Trump. The American president wished this Tuesday, March 11, in his own way, welcome to the new Canadian Prime Minister. And this, by redoubled commercial threats against Canada, ensuring that the “only thing supposed to do” for the country was to join the United States.
The American president, reacting to the announcement by the Canadian province of Ontario of an surcharge on electricity exports to three American states, announced on his Truth Social network that he dubbed 50 % – against 25 % previously – customs duties on Canadian steel and aluminum having to come into force this Wednesday. He also wrote that he would impose on April 2 of such customs taxes on cars and that it would definitively stop the automotive industry in Canada “.
The “only sensible thing” to do for the country is to become the “51st American state”, which would end de facto in the trade war, repeated the 78 -year -old Republican, for whom the annexation of Canada is a real fixed idea since his return to power.
The new head of Canadian government Mark Carney assured him this Sunday, March 9 in an offensive speech that his country “would never be part of the United States, in any way”. “Canadians are always ready when someone launches the glove. Let the Americans are not mistaken. Commerce as in hockey, Canada will win,” he said.
An “artificial” border between the two countries
Donald Trump, in the same message on Truth Social this Tuesday, writes that if Canadians became American, “there would be no more customs duties, nor anything else. Canadians would pay significantly less taxes, they would be more safe […] that before. “He also describes as” artificial “the border separating the two countries.
Since his inauguration on January 20, Donald Trump has multiplied the shattering announcements and the equally spectacular reversals in terms of customs duties, which makes finance and the global economy bite. Canada has gradually appeared as the privileged target of aggressive commercial rhetoric and the expansionist aims of the American president, which also covets Greenland as well as the Panama Canal. On Thursday, March 6, the American president had announced to retreat on the 25 % customs duties he had imposed in Canada and Mexico, bringing Ottawa to suspend certain reprisal measures. But the next day, Donald Trump had finally made commercial threats again, in particular on agriculture.
The former real estate developer continues to proclaim his “love” for customs duties which, according to him, must allow both to repatriate factories in the United States and to reduce the deficit, even if it means causing transient financial “disturbances”.
But this protectionist “golden age” praised by the billionaire convinces investors less and less, who now speculate on a recession in the United States, something unthinkable just weeks ago. This Tuesday, the star indices of the New York Stock Exchange, Dow Jones and Nasdaq, continued to sink after having undergone heavy losses this Monday. “The American economy cannot afford to inflict such an injury at a time when the risks of recession increases,” the economist and former American finance minister Larry Summers criticized on Tuesday on Tuesday.
Steel and aluminum, crucial imports for the United States
Some countries such as Japan and Australia are trying during this time to negotiate exemptions from customs duties scheduled for all Wednesday on all steel and aluminum entering the United States, whatever the provenance. The world’s leading power imports approximately half of the steel and aluminum it uses, for the automobile, aviation, petrochemicals or basic consumer products, such as preserves.
If it remains among the main world producers, the American steel industry is losing speed. It is in particular confronted with competition from Asia but also from Canada, where 50 % of aluminum comes from and 20 % of steel imported in the United States, according to Ey-Parthenon.
The American president had already taxed imports of steel and aluminum during his first mandate (2017-2021). But customs duties having to enter into force this Wednesday “go further by covering a whole range of processed products. And the government also strengthens their application, by reducing the possibilities of bypass via third countries,” said EY, Gregory Daco.