Trump's Foreign Policy Starts Off On A Toxic Foot— Upending Trade With Our Two Top Partners

Oh, And Bullying Tiny Panama

When does Rubio realize he made a career-killing decision?

Rubio is down in Panama telling them that if they don’t give up the Canal Zone, Trump will have the military invade the country, which has no military. It might just be, as John Hudson reported, “an opening negotiating position to secure lower fees for U.S. goods passing through the canal or closer cooperation on migration.” Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino, who heads a pro-U.S. government— and the leaders of the other Central American countries— are furious at the threats that harken back to 19th century U.S. imperialism. Hudson wrote that “Rubio has suggested fees will be an important part of negotiations with Panama during the trip. ‘We should be getting a discount or maybe for free, because we paid for the thing,’ he said… Success in the negotiations for the United States could see Panama agreeing to support the Trump administration’s migration policies, limits on Chinese investment and favoritism for U.S. vessels moving through the canal, said Shannon O’Neil, a Latin America expert at the Council on Foreign Relations.”

Meanwhile, Trump has already begun a trade war against Canada, something that goes back to his anger from when his wife and daughter were both making goo-goo eyes at Justin Trudeau when the dashing Canadian prime minister visited the White House during Trump’s first term. The day after Trump’s threat crashed the stock market, the Wall Street Journal’s right wing editorial board called it The Dumbest Trade War In History. “Trump will fire his first tariff salvo on Saturday against those notorious American adversaries… Mexico and Canada. They’ll get hit with a 25% border tax, while China, a real adversary, will endure 10%. This reminds us of the old Bernard Lewis joke that it’s risky to be America’s enemy but it can be fatal to be its friend. ng as Americans keep using them. Neither country can stop it… Trump sometimes sounds as if the U.S. shouldn’t import anything at all, that America can be a perfectly closed economy making everything at home. This is called autarky, and it isn’t the world we live in, or one that we should want to live in, as Trump may soon find out... None of this is supposed to happen under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement that Trump negotiated and signed in his first term. The U.S. willingness to ignore its treaty obligations, even with friends, won’t make other countries eager to do deals. Maybe Trump will claim victory and pull back if he wins some token concessions. But if a North American trade war persists, it will qualify as one of the dumbest in history.”

The idiocy is a 25% on almost all goods coming from Canada— from car parts to lumber and maple syrup. The tariffs take effect Tuesday and will continue until Trump decides Canada is doing enough to stop the flow of fentanyl. The trade war is likely to cause a recession in Canada— and prompt Canada to launch targetted retaliatory measures against the U.S.

Thomas Seal reported that “Canada is set to introduce escalating retaliatory counter-tariffs to try to turn Americans against President Donald Trump’s 25% levies on Canadian goods, a threat that’s causing the country to rethink its dependence on its southern neighbor. ‘You will find when we do respond, at least initially, that we will focus on tariffing American goods that actually are sold in significant quantities in Canada, and especially those for which there are readily available alternatives for Canadians,’ Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said in an interview on Friday, hours after Trump reiterated his plan to bring in tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China… Former Canadian Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, a candidate to succeed Justin Trudeau as prime minister, suggested hitting Trump ally Elon Musk directly by applying a 100% tariff on Tesla electric vehicles.”

Canada is the biggest foreign energy supplier to the US, and the two countries have developed a tightly integrated network of pipelines and processing facilities in recent decades. Oil refineries in the US Midwest are especially dependent, having been built to process the heavy crude that’s most readily available from Alberta, with little ability to access alternative supplies.

The spat is prompting Canadian officials to talk with greater urgency about diversifying away from the US, and Wilkinson has an eye on a future in which Canada has ready export alternatives to its wealthy neighbor.

No Senate Republicans have the balls to try to stop Trump while they still can

NBC News reported that “Economists across the political spectrum expect tariffs to increase what consumers pay for a range of goods, including vehicles, electronics, produce and lumber. Tariffs are paid by companies importing goods into the U.S., similar to a tax. While some businesses will look to source goods elsewhere, others with no alternatives will be forced to pay the fees. That means U.S. grocery stores will shoulder higher costs for fruits and vegetables grown in Mexico; homebuilders will pay more for Canadian lumber; and automakers will have to pay a tariff each time a component crosses the northern or southern border, which happens repeatedly during the production of a single vehicle. Companies will have to decide whether to pass these higher costs to consumers or absorb them, which would dent profits or require cuts to protect their margins. The implications could be wide-reaching across the U.S. economy, in part because American consumers and businesses imported more goods from Mexico than any other country.”

Psychopath: