Andrew Latham
Fortress America: Trump’s New Trade War Targets Canada & Mexico with Tariffs – Bernard Lewis once said, “America is harmless as an enemy and treacherous as a friend.” The historian’s sharp aphorism was aimed at U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.
Still, it resonates just as powerfully in trade and economic policy under Donald Trump. American allies who assumed that their trade relationships with the United States would remain predictable, or at least subject to the logic of negotiation and the terms of the USMCA, found themselves confronted with something more uncompromising.
Donald Trump Begins Slapping Tariffs On Big Trade Partners
Trump’s tariffs are not mere bargaining chips meant to extract conventional trade concessions. They are instruments of a broader economic strategy aimed at reconfiguring the very foundations of America’s engagement with the global economy.
Trump is not seeking a better deal within a trade framework he fundamentally accepts; he is trying to unravel that framework in favor of a more self-sufficient United States.
The dominant narrative in mainstream commentary treats Trump’s tariffs as traditional protectionist measures to pressure trading partners into making concessions. According to this view, Trump’s imposition of tariffs on Chinese goods, European automobiles, and even Canadian and Mexican steel was designed to bring trading partners to the table to secure more favorable terms for the United States.
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