During the historic 1972 hockey summit between Canada and the Soviet Union, a small but boisterous group of Canadian fans travelled to Moscow for the final four games to cheer on their team. They came up with a catchy phrase which they chanted throughout the series. It went like this: “Da, da, Canada! Nyet, nyet, Soviet!” It must have worked, because Canada won that series on a goal by Paul Henderson with 30 second left in the final game.
If one is to analyze Donald Trump’s foreign policy, it seems that he’s decided to take this catchphrase and turn it on its head. For him, it’s “Da, da, Rossiya! Nyet, nyet, Canada!” How else can one explain his decision to bring Canada to its knees with tariffs, while slavishly deferring to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.
Trump has reached an agreement with the European Union to work toward eliminating tariffs and barriers on trade, and apparently both sides agreed to halt for now tariffs that threatened to devolve into a trade war.
He has also attempted to reach a separate bilateral agreement with Mexico on trade, bypassing Canada in the process. This was rejected by Mexico.
As for Canada, he has threatened to impose tariffs of up to 25 percent on automobiles and automobile parts. This on top of the 25 percent tariffs on steel and the 10 percent tariffs on aluminum imposed under the bizarre pretext that Canada constitutes some kind of “security threat” when it comes to the production of such materials. These tariffs have already been termed illegal by Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and are estimated to cost the United States a net loss of 400,000 jobs in addition to the damage caused by the retaliatory tariffs imposed by Canada.
An automobile trade war will be even more devastating. The interrelation between Canadian and American auto manufacturers insofar as parts are concerned has developed to such an extent that this will have a very serious effect on U.S. manufacturers and hit workers hard not only in such states as Michigan and Ohio, which backed Mr. Trump narrowly in the 2016 presidential election, but also deep red states like Texas, Kentucky and Missouri.
Hopefully Congress can intervene. Sens. Doug Jones (D-Ala.), and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), have introduced a bilateral bill intended to delay the tariffs and require the International Trade Commission to conduct “a comprehensive study of the well-being, health and vitality of the United States automotive industry before tariffs could be applied.”
As far as President Trump is concerned, he is playing hardball in order to get a better deal for the United States. Mr. Trump is very good at playing hardball with Canada. He is also very good at playing hardball with the European Union, with the Group of Seven and with NATO. In other words, with all of the traditional democratic allies of the U.S. But when it comes to dealing with dictatorships like North Korea and Russia, he turns into a total wimp.
Let’s start with North Korea. Mr. Trump unilaterally decided to scrap the longstanding military exercises with South Korea, without even bothering to inform South Korea of his intentions. And what did he get in return? Some vague promise from Kim Jong-un to denuclearize. Yet, within nine days of this agreement, satellite images showed that North Korea is upgrading its Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center – a facility used to produce weapons-grade fissile material.
Then there was the disastrous July 16 summit with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki. Not only was Mr. Trump’s refusal to accept the findings of his own intelligence agencies regarding Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and his obvious deference to Mr. Putin condemned by both Democrats and conscientious Republicans, the big question was what he actually told Mr. Putin during the private session, since no one else, save an interpreter was present from the American side. As Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) noted: “A single, ominous question now hangs over the White House: what could possibly cause President Trump to put the interests of Russia over those of the United States? Millions of Americans will continue to wonder if the only possible explanation for this dangerous behavior is the possibility that President Putin holds damaging information over President Trump.”
What is truly amazing is that a CNN poll found that 68 percent of Republicans approved the way Mr. Trump handled this summit. This is a party that considers Ronald Reagan to be its modern-day icon. Let me point out that Mr. Trump’s policy towards both Canada and Russia is 180 degrees opposite to that of President Reagan’s. Mr. Reagan termed the USSR the “Evil Empire” and set out to initiate an arms race the USSR had no way of keeping up with, causing the system to implode and leading first to freedom for Central European satellite states, and then to the break-up of the USSR itself. And let us not forget Mr. Reagan’s immortal words: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” Compare that with Mr. Trump’s comment on U.S.-Russia relations: “I think that the United States has been foolish. I hold both countries responsible.” Or on the indictment of 12 Russian officials for interfering in U.S. elections: “My people came to me, Dan Coates came to me and some others, they said they think it’s Russia. I have President Putin; he just said it’s not Russia. I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be.” He later said he misspoke. He meant to say “wouldn’t be.” That explanation is, frankly, hard to swallow.
And when it comes to Canada, Reagan firmly believed in free trade with Canada and initiated the 1987 Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement (CUSFTA), which was expanded in 1994 to include Mexico under NAFTA.
So perhaps it’s time for many people to question the logic behind Mr. Trump’s foreign affairs priorities. Who are America’s real friends? Canada, the EU, the G-7 and NATO – or Russia and North Korea?