VIDEO: The Canadian ad featuring President Reagan that President Trump doesn't want Americans to believe

Dear American readers, How do you feel about all the tariffs which President Trump has slapped on America's trade partners, particularly Canada? Are they making America stronger? More prosperous? Great again? Is the price which you personally are paying for protectionism worth it? 

President Trump is in a snit because the government of Ontario put together a TV spot, using clips from a speech televised in 1987, in which the last conservative president to occupy the White House says that tariffs are not helpful but hurtful to the American people. Check this out.

Yesterday, while en route to gabfests with assorted Asian leaders in Malaysia and South Korea, POTUS said that, because of the ad, which he called "fake", he's ending all talks with Canada over the ad. But wait (as Vince Offer used to say), there's more. "Because of their serious misrepresentation of the facts, and hostile act," he told the meeja on Air Force One, "I am increasing the Tariff on Canada by 10% over and above what they are paying now."

What did you see in the ad that could have triggered the Donald's ire? To me, it sounds as if President Reagan is in favour of free trade, and against tariffs, which he called "an outdated notion." Did I not hear correctly?

What's the point of getting even tougher on America's biggest trading partner? With Canada already under a US base tariff rate of 35%, the impact of President Trump’s latest gut-punch isn't immediately clear. 

The 35% rate doesn't apply to most Canadian goods because of an exemption for products and shipments made within the rules of the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). Steel and aluminum products aren't covered by that waiver, and Canadian-made cars and trucks are only partially eligible for exemption from the 25% tariffs on most foreign autos. 

Marx Carnage, the prime minister of Canuckistan, has been engaged in protracted talks with the US of A to lower the levies and has already lowered his elbow to knee-level. [I assume Canuck readers will get that one. Ed.] After speaking to Mr Carnage, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said the province will pause its ad campaign tomorrow, now that the ads have been seen by millions of Americans, including President Trump, when they interrupted the World Series.

But the damage has been done. The clash has reignited uncertainty between two partners that exchanged $900 billion in goods and services last year and have closely interwoven supply chains for major industries. IMHO, the ongoing trade war benefits no-one, no-one. Let the man who authored The Art of the Deal get on with some sesrious deal-making.

Trudeau ready to meet Trump (and Mexicans) to renegotiate USMCA

During President Trump's first term, the US of A entered into negotiations with Canada and Mexico to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which the President called a "terrible deal". While the Donald frequently expressed his love for Canada, he took aim at Prime Minister Blackie McBlackface, calling him "two faced", "weak", and a "far-left lunatic."

The result was the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which replaced NAFTA, effective in 2020. 

This past August, as the campaign for the 2024 election started to heat up, President Trump said, "I terminated NAFTA. That's a pretty big thing. A lot of people said it would be impossible to do. I got it done, and we have a great deal now. What we have to do is make it much better even, and we'll be able to do that very shortly."

Just three weeks prior to his landslide victory, President Trump vowed to renegotiate the USMCA.  "I am announcing today that upon taking office, I will formally notify Mexico and Canada of my intention to invoke the six-year renegotiation provisions of the USMCA that I put in," he told the Detroit Economic Club.

The USMCA agreement is up for review on its sixth anniversary [not "six-year anniversay"! Ed.], when the three countries will have to confirm in writing if they wish to extend the pact or re-evaluate it. "That was the hardest thing I had to get, they didn't want that," Mr Trump said of the unique review clause. "I said, 'Nope, I want to be able to renegotiate in six years, otherwise we're not making the deal.' And I got it, and it's coming due very soon. Oh, I'm going to have a lot of fun." 

President Trump said he wanted to better protect and promote the American auto industry, which has long been centred in Detroit. "I'll also seek strong new protections against transgender ["transshipment" shurely, Ed.] so that China and other countries cannot smuggle their products and auto parts into the United States tax-free through Mexico to the detriment of our workers and our supply chains. They smuggle this stuff in. They don't pay anything. We're going to have very strong language on that."

Car-makers and car-buyers, stay tuned!

40 Republicans call on POTUS to remove "gay protection" from USMCA

Negotiations to rewrite the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), dragged on for well over a year before culminating this fall in a new US-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement (USMCA). The problem was the insistence of Canada's progressive, feminist Prime Minister Just In Trudeau, that any new agreement be a model of liberal ideology, putting social justice and the progressive agenda ahead of business and prosperity.

Mr Socks sent his lead negotiator, a former journalist named Chrystia Freeland, to the meetings with a shopping list of "non-negotiable demands" including new policies on climate change, gender equity, indigenous rights and other issues largely irrelevant to free trade, including (of course) measures to advance the liberal pro-queer agenda and protect "gay rights".

The USA and Mexico finally tired of being nagged about these non-issues and concluded an agreement on their own. See "Payback for the Lady in Red - Trump set to stick it to Canada", WWW 28/8/18.

Faced with the prospect of being cut loose, the Canucks caved on a couple of the real issues -- the auto sector and supply management in their dairy industry -- and the new USMCA (aka NAFTA v2) was hastily signed. Cue sighs of relief in Ottawa and a certain amount of behind-the-hand snickering in Washington and Mexico City.

As a sop to the Canadian snowflakes, the new agreement includes a pledge that all three countries will support "policies that protect workers against employment discrimination on the basis of sex, including with regard to pregnancy, sexual harassment, sexual orientation, gender identity." Now that they've gotten around to reading the fine print, dozens of Republican lawmakers have noticed this clause and, on Friday, pronounced themselves unhappy with it.

According to POLITICO, 40 conservative congresspeople [Ed., is that what we're supposed to call them now?] have signed their names to a letter to President Trump urging him not to sign the agreement unless that language is removed.

Among the signatories are House Freedom Caucus chairman Mark Meadows, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) and Rep. Diane Black (R-TN), a member of the Ways and Means Committee. The coalition said the United States "has the right to decide when, whether and how to tackle issues of civil rights, protected classes and workplace rights" as a sovereign nation.

"A trade agreement is no place for the adoption of social policy," the letter continues. "It is especially inappropriate and insulting to our sovereignty to needlessly submit to social policies which the United States Congress has so far explicitly refused to accept."

Another signatory, Republican Doug Lamborn, has expressed concern congressional approval for USMCA could set a precedent “for activist courts” and he said in a statement Friday that Trump needed to remove the “troubling language … adopted behind the scenes.”

Before it can be put into effect, the new deal must be approved by Congress, but Friday's letter suggests POTUS could lose some Republican support for the agreement unless changes are made. In an interview with POLITICO, Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO) referred to "troubling language...adopoted behind the scenes" and said "This is language that is going to cause a lot of people to reconsider their support of the trade agreement, and to the point that it may endanger the passage of the trade agreement unless something is done."

Walt agrees completely. The mere suggestion that America should base its labour and related policies on the liberal model lwhich is failing spectatularly in Sweden, the United Kingdom and, yes, Canada is nothing short of ridiculous. Let Americans -- and only Americans -- decide how to run the US of A. If Canada (and Mexico) want to play in the American league, they're going to have to play by American league rules!

Further reading (and viewing): "CBC stunned by American prof's criticism of Chrystia Freeland", WWW 9/9/18. Includes video.