Trump Threatens New Trade War And Canada’s Carney Says Sure, Bring It On

Six months into a real war he cannot seem to get out of, Trump has now picked another unwinnable fight, this time with America’s second-largest trading partner.

Senior White House Correspondent, HuffPost

Six months after starting a real war he cannot figure out how to get out of, President Donald Trump has started another, potentially equally disastrous conflict: a trade war with America’s neighbour and second-largest partner.

And just as Iran is showing little interest in helping Trump out of his bind by agreeing to a face-saving deal that would let him claim victory, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is uninterested in letting Trump back away from the fight he began within weeks of returning to office.

Indeed, when Trump declared that he would impose even more tariffs on Canadian goods starting in January – two months after the midterm elections – Carney upped the ante and said no: His retaliatory tariffs would begin the day after Labor Day, the traditional start of the fall election campaign season.

“You’re at war when you’re attacked, and we got attacked,” Carney said in a weekend press conference explaining why he broke off trade negotiations.

He then said out loud what many US allies have believed for two years: that the United States under Trump is no longer a trustworthy partner. “We recognise that sometimes its signature was written in pencil.”

Trump’s new tariffs on a hodgepodge of goods from Canada will raise prices for US consumers even further in the run-up to the November elections, while Canadian tariffs will hurt US exporters who count on that business. Trump has also upped his........

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