Going back on our word to trade allies

Editorial

Tariff Man is back, said The Wall Street Journal in an editorial. “With his re-election on the ropes, President Trump returned to his favorite household remedy,” reimposing a 10 percent tariff on Canadian aluminum only a month after his “new NAFTA,” the United States–Mexico-Canada (USMCA) agreement, officially went into effect. The agreement included a provision for levies if imports surged “beyond historic volumes of trade.” That gave the president an opening, and at a visit to a Whirlpool factory in Ohio last week, Trump invoked the clause, claiming our neighbors are “taking advantage of us, as usual.” That’s not true: Imports of aluminum are actually below the

level of 2017. But two well-connected U.S. aluminum producers have lobbied for new tariffs. The Trump administration has obliged them despite the economic harm. The tariffs will raise prices for end users such as beer companies, automakers—and Whirlpool, which complained in 2018 that Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs “had significantly raised production costs.” Canada, predictably, responded with $2.7 billion in additional taxes on U.S. exports of aluminum products such as bicycles, golf clubs, and refrigerators. This is “Trump at his policy worst: He hurts

U.S. industry and consumers, while telling America’s friends that his word on trade can’t be trusted.”