EDITORIAL: How to stop a trade war

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After Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential race, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland assured Canadians “with utter sincerity and conviction … that Canada will be absolutely fine.”

Now she’ll get the chance to prove it.

Prove, as she said, that “we have a strong relationship with the United States … with president Trump and his team,” while reminding Canadians that the current trade treaty Canada has with the U.S. was negotiated by Trump.

With Trump signalling he’ll slap a 25% tariff on all Canadian goods coming into the U.S. after he becomes president on Jan. 20, the Trudeau government’s job is to convince him that will provoke a trade war that will increase the cost of living for Americans and Canadians.

The good news is that most Americans understand this.

A new poll by Harris Insights and Analytics done for the U.K.’s Guardian newspaper, released Tuesday, reported that a solid majority of Americans surveyed — 79% of Democratic voters, 68% of Independents and 59% of Republicans — believe a tariff war will increase the price of the goods in the U.S. and make their lives less affordable.

They’re right and the same thing will happen in Canada as the federal government inevitably responds with counter-tariffs.

So the job of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Freeland is to lead on this issue.

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That is, to work with Canada’s premiers and our allies in the U.S. — including many state governors who know how valuable the U.S.-Canada trading relationship is — to convince Trump to back away from this threat.

Especially so given that his main concerns about illegal immigrants and illegal drugs coming into the U.S. have to do with holes in its southern neighbour, not its northern one.

That said, reducing the flow of illegal immigrants and drugs such as fentanyl across the Canada-U.S. border are sensible policies in themselves and, if Trudeau takes it seriously, should make Trump more willing to compromise on the tariff issue.

Of course, there is always the possibility Trump will play hardball to the very end on tariffs — which is all the more reason for the Trudeau government to get its act together on this issue now.