Donald Trump for the first time used an international venue Thursday to make his stunning proposal that the United States get an additional country: Canada.
In his first global event since becoming US president earlier this week, Trump spoke via video link to the Davos Economic Forum in Switzerland.
His speech and the question-and-answer session that followed provided an early example of pressure on various allies I prophesied to him presidency.
What was not expected until recently was the intensity of this pressure, its repeated focus on Canada, and its rhetorical attacks on its sovereignty.
Trump arrived with a broad message to the international business community: Build in the United States or face punitive tariffs.
Trump said, more or less, “Come on, make your product in America, and we’ll give you the lowest taxes of any country on Earth.” exaggeration Tax advantage for US corporations.
“But if you don’t manufacture your product in America, which is your right, you will simply have to pay a tariff.”
While he has harshly criticized many US allies, including the European Union, he has continued to be somewhat disparaging of Canada.
Trump has threatened to impose steep tariffs on the US’s North American neighbors as early as next week, although he also signed an agreement Executive order This suggests a longer time horizon, requiring a North American border study to be conducted by April 1.
This itself suggests that Trump is looking to apply pressure on additional fronts. He notes the scheduled review of the North American Trade Agreement, and also orders his officials to report on the trade deficit, etc Foreign taxes That hit American companies.
In his Davos speech, he again complained about America’s trade deficit with Canada – which is true. But a small part The $200 to $250 billion Trump claimed in his speech tends to rise and fall with the prices of oil that Americans import.
“We’re not going to have that anymore. We can’t do that,” Trump said during a lengthy debate about Canada.
US President Donald Trump, speaking via video to people gathered at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, said other countries, including Canada, are taking advantage of the United States. He also repeated his claims that the United States does not need anything from Canada.
“As you probably know, I say: You can always become a country, and if you are a country, we won’t have a deficit. We won’t have to impose tariffs on you.”
He complained that Canada was difficult to do business with and repeated his previous complaints about Canada not needing its products: “We don’t need them to make our cars, and they make a lot of them. We don’t need their wood because we have our own forests, and we don’t need their oil and gas.”
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The facts are not that simple. Regarding oil, for example, it is true that the United States is Approaching To self-reliance than it has been in decades, but it is It is still a net importerOverwhelmingly From CanadaIts refineries are designed to handle Canadian heavy crude.
What is undoubtedly real is the economic pressure it exerts.
And it’s not just the threat of 25 percent tariffs, although that’s bad enough. Companies are bracing for damage, and some, like Honda, have had it happen Express Tension over production plans in Canada.
And it’s not just Trump’s other trade threats. It is too Huge editorial And the efforts he launched in critical minerals, oil and gas, which threaten to withdraw investment into the United States from other countries.
There is also military pressure. Trump had previously threatened to leave NATO countries defenseless if they did not increase defense spending; And he upped the ante in Davos.
Trump said Thursday that he would demand that NATO countries increase military spending to a staggering 5 percent of gross domestic product. No NATO country has reached this level and beyond Not even close. Few are even halfway there. The United States is at 3.4 percent.
In Ottawa, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau noted that Canada has nearly tripled its defense budget newly a promise To reach NATO’s current target of 2 percent. He – she It won’t happen For years, according to a parliamentary watchdog.
Canada will have ample opportunity to discuss these issues with Trump in various international forums this year.
there G7 In Alberta in June, then NATO A summit in Europe later that month, although both events could happen after the federal election.
On the other hand, Trump is shattering generations of norms in the relationship between Canada and the United States, and publicly questioning Canada’s sovereignty in a way that no American politician has done in more than a century.
But all this talk about the state will remain completely hypothetical if American public opinion has anything to do with it. Several surveys conducted by The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Ipsos, The Economist, and YouGov in recent days indicate that the idea of annexing Canada is not very popular.
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