The on-again, off-again tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada proposed by President Donald Trump have trading partners fuming, corporations pausing and consumers worrying. The taxes would not be necessary, the president said recently, if not for the poor dealmaking of a prior administration.
“Who can blame them if they made these great deals,” Trump said during a White House press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron on Feb. 24, adding the two trading partners “took advantage of the United States.”
“Every aspect that you could imagine they took advantage of,” the president continued. “I looked at some of these agreements, I’d read them at night and I’d say, ‘Who would ever sign a thing like this?’ So yes, the tariffs will go forward. We’ll make up a lot of territory. Our country will be liquid and rich again.”
That’s a lot of hyperbole for a failed trade deal. So who was the sucker who agreed to it?
It must be the previous commander in chief Joe Biden, whom Trump often calls the “worst president ever.” Nope. Barack Obama? No again.
“We were led by, in some cases, fools,” Trump reiterated at the Macron press conference. “Anybody that would agree to allow this to happen to our country should be ashamed of themselves.”
Turns out the leader responsible was someone who many believe knows no shame. The one who, in his previous incarnation as a real estate tycoon, authored a best-selling book called “The Art of the Deal.”
Yes, the president was talking about himself, though it’s likely he wasn’t aware of that. Admitting mistakes is not his style. And he’s certainly never referred to himself as a fool before, at least not in front of the cameras.
But, by his own estimation, Trump was just that.
In November 2018, Trump joined Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and then-Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto to sign a trade deal among the three nations called the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), while attending a G-20 summit in Argentina.
Replacing the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the USMCA deal was negotiated five months after Trump ignited a trade war by imposing tariffs on steel and aluminum from Canada, Mexico and the European Union. Canada and Mexico retaliated with tariffs on U.S. goods.
During the signing ceremony, Trump called the USMCA “the largest most significant modern and balanced trade agreement in history,” adding, “All of our countries will benefit greatly. It is probably the largest trade deal ever made also.”
Much of the media missed the ironic plot twist of Trump blaming himself for that deal. But social media didn’t. Trump was even corrected in the “Community Notes” section on X, owned by top adviser and Department of Government Efficiency chief Elon Musk.
“OMG. The President of the United States just got Community noted when he forgot the fact he signed the agreements he doesn’t like,” wrote one X user. “This is fast approaching Biden level of incompetency.”
Did he forget, as several users asked, or was something more sinister at play, as one commenter suggested?
“They are purposefully incompetent because they want people to have no faith in the government so that they can dismantle and privatize it,” he wrote. “This is all a scam.”
Whatever the reason, American consumers will be the ones left to foot the bill. Canada already imposed initial retaliatory tariffs of $21 billion on U.S. goods, though the government said it had suspended its second wave of retaliatory tariffs worth $87 billion after Trump on Thursday postponed the 25 percent tariffs on many imports from Mexico and Canada.
Despite the delay, the president made clear he still plans to impose “reciprocal” tariffs.
“Most of the tariffs go on April the second,” Trump said before signing the orders. “Right now, we have some temporary ones and small ones, relatively small, although it’s a lot of money having to do with Mexico and Canada.”
Major U.S. stock markets briefly had seen significant declines this week. The S&P 500 stock index has fallen below where it was before Trump was elected.
Most economists say the import taxes will have a negative impact on the economy, raising U.S. prices on goods and slowing economic growth and potentially costing jobs.
