The Volokh Conspiracy

Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent

About The Volokh Conspiracy Editorial Independence Who we are Books Volokh Daily Email Archives Search DMCA RSS

Tariffs

Trump's Pernicious Threat to Impose Tariffs on Canada in Response to Wildfires

The idea is simultaneously harmful and illegal.

Ilya Somin | 7.18.2026 5:24 PM

Will Lester/ZUMA Press/Newscom

Much of the eastern United States has recently been affected by smoke originating from massive wildfires in Canada. It's a genuine problem. But Trump's threat to impose new tariffs on Canadian goods in response won't make the situation any better. If implemented, it would damage both the US and Canadian economies, and further poison relations between the two countries. And it has no chance of actually alleviating the wildfire problem. Furthermore, no law authorizes the president to impose tariffs in response to natural disasters like this one.

Trump claims the tariffs are justified because "[w]e are holding Canada responsible for the fact that they are not properly maintaining their Forests, and Brush therein, and the United States is being unnecessarily invaded by filthy, polluted, and unhealthy air." But, in reality, the fires are caused by a combination of lightning, weather patterns, and global warming. They cannot be fixed by improvement "forest management."

I suppose one can argue Canada is partly responsible for the fires because they contribute to global warming. But the same is true of the US, and on a much larger scale (because we have a much larger........

© Reason.com