TRUMP TARGETS CANADA
PRESIDENT THREATENS FOREIGN ‘RECIPROCAL TAX’
President Donald Trump is complaining about Canadian trade practices while threatening some as-yetundefined international tax that has revived fears he might be contemplating new American import penalties.
The U.S. president made the remarks at the White House on Monday while unveiling a long-awaited infrastructure plan. During a lengthy session with reporters, he complained about countries considered allies of the U.S.
He mentioned one directly to America’s north.
“Canada does not treat us right in terms of the farming and the crossing the borders,’’ Trump said.
“We cannot continue to be taken advantage of by other countries.’’
It’s unclear what he was referring to. In the past, he has complained about Canada’s dairy controls and softwood lumber. Administration officials have also expressed anger over Canada’s wide-ranging attack at the World Trade Organization on the U.S. system for imposing duties.
Trump did promise more clarity soon on a new tax. More details could be coming this week, he suggested.
“We are going to charge countries outside of our country — countries that take advantage of the United States,’’ Trump said. “Some of them are socalled allies but they are not allies on trade ... So we’re going to be doing very much a reciprocal tax and you’ll be hearing about that during the week and the coming months.’’
It’s unclear what type of tax he’s referring to. Earlier this year, the administration dropped the idea of a border-adjustment tax in its sincepassed fiscal reform, because of widespread opposition on Capitol Hill.
The confusion was compounded by several factors:
• In the U.S., Congress sets tax rates — not the president. And the Congress, which just completed a major tax reform, has shown little inclination to hike taxes.
• Tariff rates, meanwhile, are negotiated at the WTO.
• The idea wasn’t even mentioned in the White House’s 2018 budget proposal — which was released Monday.
The most specific clue Trump offered involved motorycles.
He complained that the U.S. brings in products tariff-free and other countries sometimes charge more than 50 per cent tariffs on the same product: “Harley-Davidson. They’re treated very unfairly in various countries. You know the countries I’m talking about,’’ Trump said. “So we’re going to be doing very much a reciprocal tax.’’
Those motorcycle tariffs are highest in Asia — they don’t exist in North America.
Several trade experts contacted Monday confessed to some confusion about what the president was threatening.
Bosma’s remains were burned in the same animal incinerator — called The Eliminator — they had used to get rid of Babcock’s body.
Bosma’s family and friends also attended Monday’s sentencing hearing, which was taking place in a packed Toronto courtroom.
The jury in the Babcock case agreed with the Crown that the pair murdered the 23-year-old Toronto woman because she had become the odd woman out in a love triangle with Millard and his girlfriend at the time, Christina Noudga.
The trial heard Babcock struggled with her mental health and drug use in the months leading up to her disappearance in the summer of 2012. And she had become infatuated with Millard.
She moved out of her parents’ home, bouncing from spot to spot, and ended up asking Millard for a place to stay in early July 2012. Millard had purchased the incinerator just days before Babcock vanished, and court heard that Babcock’s body was burned in late July.
First-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for at least 25 years.
The judge presiding over the Babcock case will decide, however, whether to impose consecutive or concurrent periods of parole ineligibility, a provision added by the federal government in 2011 to the Criminal Code for multiple murderers.