“Donate ‘texts on Trudeau instead! “
This is the comment that any columnist receives over and over again, every time they publish a paper about Donald Trump. A popular approach among the followers of the American president, that of “whataboutism”. The old Communists also did that when we told them about Stalin or Mao’s abuses. “What about Franco? From Pinochet? “
The truth is, we talk a lot more about Justin Trudeau than we talk about Donald Trump. Since 1er July, the chroniclers of Newspaper published 22 texts on the President of the United States. On the Prime Minister of Canada, we made 41.
And to answer the basic question of why Donald is being talked about so much, here’s a very concrete and tangible example: his decision to impose tariffs of 10% on Canadian aluminum. This is equivalent to a tax of 3.6 billion on our exports.
Not self-sufficient
Aluminum represents nearly 10,000 direct jobs in Quebec, in regions such as Saguenay – Lac-Saint-Jean and the Côte-Nord. By imposing these tariffs, Donald Trump makes our production less competitive compared to that which comes from Russia, China, India or the United Arab Emirates.
Because … forget it if you think Trump’s decision will help the US economy. The United States is not self-sufficient. Two and a half times more aluminum is produced in Canada than in our neighbors to the south, who are also our main buyers. So it is the American companies which will have to pay the imposed tariffs or to turn to suppliers coming from rival States.
It is not for nothing that the American business community itself condemns these imposed tariffs and begs the president to cancel them. It won’t help anyone.
Counter productive
In announcing these new tariffs, Donald Trump said he had no choice but to impose them, because “Canada was still benefiting from the United States”. In the mind of the alleged deal maker, a good deal cannot be a win-win. Someone must necessarily abuse someone else.
It is a break with the spirit of free trade, which was nevertheless to have been enshrined in the new Canada – United States – Mexico Agreement: in a common market, it is assumed that the interests of each of the parties are also the our. In other words, when certain parts cross the border 6 or 7 times in different forms before being placed on a car, everyone is aware that charging taxes for each passage is counterproductive.
Unstable and liar
That’s why we need to talk about Donald. Because our primary trading partner is currently operating under the leadership of an unstable individual who prides himself on making decisions based on gut instinct rather than data analysis. Because he has openly bragged about lying about the import-export figures between Canada and the United States.
Because it hurts its people, who have long lost their reputation as a reliable partner. And because it costs us jobs too. Because it weakens us all compared to our competitors.
This is why we are writing about Trump, even if we will continue to do more about Trudeau.