t first glance, the current American-Canadian trade “war” is absurd. We are neighbors with a long history of close friendship, speak the same language (for the most part), and spring from the same British civilization.
Nearly one million Canadians reside in the United States.
Given the two countries’ natural affinities, Canadians are nearly indistinguishable from Americans.
Both sides have reasonable grievances over trade policy.
Americans don’t like Canada’s perennial trade surpluses of more than $50 billion in a supposedly free-trade zone.
They resent the fact that non-free-market China exports subsidized cheap steel and aluminum through Canada, giving Canadian auto and truck exports a price advantage.
The United States also objects to Canada imposing a surcharge on American digital media companies to subsidize Canadian Indigenous and French-language content.
Americans further resent Prime Minister Mark Carney’s backing out of an apparent deal at the eleventh hour. He apparently hoped to gin up Canadian nationalism on the eve of two key elections in Alberta and Quebec by attacking Trump, who is unpopular in Canada.
Ascendant separatist movements in both provinces threaten to unravel the Canadian nation.
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