By the media coverage of President Trump’s short appearance at the G7 Summit in Canada last week, you would think that he arrived at the meeting, dropped trou, and took a dump all over Angela Merkel’s prized German beer steins. The hysteria from all corners of the global media has been ridiculous.
And for what? An American president who is actually looking out for the best interests of his country? An American president who isn’t satisfied with the status quo – i.e., the U.S. being taken advantage of by every single last one of her allies? The reaction to Trump’s trade proposals say little about the president and much about the world’s assumptions about what the “appropriate” role is for America. And that role basically comes down to: Protector/Donor.
Trump ain’t having it.
The focus, both before and after the G7 conference, was on the tariffs Trump recently invoked against Canada and others of our European allies. But as the president himself said at a press conference, Trump believes in free trade. He just doesn’t believe in the hypocritical, fake free trade wherein we let other countries peddle their goods in America with no overhead while we simultaneously paying outlandish tariffs and taxes to export to theirs.
“I believe that you raised the idea of a tariff-free G7,” mentioned one reporter.
“I did,” confirmed Trump. “I did. That’s the way it should be. No tariffs, no barriers. That’s the way it should be. And no subsidies. I even said no tariffs. In other words, let’s say Canada — where we have tremendous tariffs — the United States pays tremendous tariffs on dairy. As an example, 270 percent. Nobody knows that.
“Ultimately, that’s what you want,” he continued. “You want a tariff-free, you want no barriers, and you want no subsidies, because you have some cases where countries are subsidizing industries, and that’s not fair. So you go tariff-free, you go barrier-free, you go subsidy-free.”
But after Trump and the rest of the G7 signed a joint communique pledging to work hand-in-hand for better universal trade deals, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau blew up the conference with an embarrassing press display where he called Trump’s tariffs on Canada “insulting” and said there would be economic retaliation. This petulant afterthought enraged Trump (who was, by this time, well on his way to Singapore), who fired back at Trudeau in a pair of fiery tweets.
“Based on Justin’s false statements at his news conference, and the fact that Canada is charging massive Tariffs to our U.S. farmers, workers and companies, I have instructed our U.S. Reps not to endorse the Communique as we look at Tariffs on automobiles flooding the U.S. Market!” Trump wrote.
In a second tweet: “PM Justin Trudeau of Canada acted so meek and mild during our @G7 meetings only to give a news conference after I left saying that, ‘US Tariffs were kind of insulting’ and he ‘will not be pushed around.’ Very dishonest & weak. Our Tariffs are in response to his of 270% on dairy!”
Trump has promised the American people a new order when it comes to global trade agreements, and now he has promised the world the same thing. Whether or not they want to hear what he’s laying down, they will have no choice but to deal with it. If they’re wise, they’ll listen and re-negotiate. If they’re foolish, they’ll retaliate and lose access to the greatest capitalism market in history.
Time will tell, but one thing’s for sure: Trump isn’t backing down.
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