Drew Wilson has written to the Prime Minister and the Premier of his province to offer his thoughts on the tariff situation.
Dear Prime Minister Trudeau and Premier Eby,
The 25% tariff being put on Canada by the United States represents the most unprecedented attack on Canada’s sovereignty by the United States in living memory. There was no justification for such a tariff and it appears to be based off a misguided idea that a trade deficit is somehow indicative of Canada treating the United States unfairly or that Canada is being “subsidized” by the United States. This completely misunderstands the nature of international trade and, further, undermines international trade as well.
It has been widely discussed that such tariffs would easily plunge Canada into a recession or worse. As such, I do agree that Canada does need to fight back with countermeasures. What’s more, I do agree with the idea that Canada needs to financially support those negatively impacted by these unjust tariffs.
What is noteworthy in all of this, however, is the fact that Canada is far from alone in these threats. Mexico and China are already being hit with these tariffs. What’s more, Europe and Taiwan are also being faced with similar tariffs. Much of the discussion I’ve seen revolves around on what Canada alone can do and the limits of what Canada can do. Indeed, Canada alone simply cannot win a tit-for-tat trade war with the United States. That is economic reality. However, the key word in that is “alone”.
What Canada needs to do is think bigger picture. Numerous countries around the world are being negatively impacted. If Canada combines efforts with these other countries to fend off these tariffs, the combined economic might of Canada, Europe, Mexico, China, and Taiwan have a much better chance at countering the efforts by the United States.
This sort of concept is nothing new. NATO is built on a similar principle to fend off Russian aggression. Specifically, Article 5 says that an attack on one NATO member is an attack on all NATO members. As such, other nations must assist the attacked NATO member. As history has shown, this has proven to be effective in preventing Russia from attacking NATO members.
The same principle could be applied to this very scenario. Canada could form agreements with other affected nations to have robust countermeasures put in place to fend off tariffs imposed by the United States. These nations can identify the tariffs being unfairly placed on their countries and agree to impose counter measures collectively until all of these unjust tariffs on all nations are removed. A tariff on one nation is a tariff on all nations.
Indeed, Canada’s economy doesn’t stand much of a chance in an economic war with the United States. However, the combined economies of Canada, Europe, China, Mexico, and Taiwan has a much greater chance of success in getting the United States to back down. As far as I’m concerned, that is the best chance Canada has at successfully countering the unfair tactics of the United States.
I trust that Canada is already doing everything it can to fend off these tariffs. So, I hope that this letter proves to be useful in some way.
Thank you for your time,
– Drew Wilson
(Note: An abbreviated version was sent to the Prime Minister due to character limit.)
