‘Makes No Sense’: WSJ Editorial Board Savages Trump Tariffs on Allies as ‘Dumbest Trade War in History’
AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein
The Wall Street Journal‘s editorial board criticized President Donald Trump’s implementation of tariffs against US allies Canada and Mexico and with China as the “dumbest trade war in history” on Saturday.
Trump announced that 25% tariffs against U.S. neighbors to the north and south are slated to go into effect Saturday. Tariffs on China were set at 10%, and he warned the European Union was next.
How the tariffs could impact American consumers remains to be seen. Some have positively speculated consumers could pay slightly more for a short time, while others are sounding the alarm.
Trump said Friday afternoon Americans had very little to be concerned about and that the US had a deeper “piggy bank” than its trading partners regarding a potential trade war.
Saturday, the Journal‘s board scorched Trump’s use of tariffs as senseless and an “economic assault” against American allies. The board wrote:
Leaving China aside, Mr. Trump’s justification for this economic assault on the neighbors makes no sense. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt says they’ve “enabled illegal drugs to pour into America.” But drugs have flowed into the U.S. for decades, and will continue to do so as long as Americans keep using them. Neither country can stop it.
Drugs may be an excuse since Mr. Trump has made clear he likes tariffs for their own sake. “We don’t need the products that they have,” Mr. Trump said on Thursday. “We have all the oil you need. We have all the trees you need, meaning the lumber.”
Mr. Trump sometimes sounds as if the U.S. shouldn’t import anything at all, that America can be a perfectly closed economy making everything at home. This is called autarky, and it isn’t the world we live in, or one that we should want to live in, as Mr. Trump may soon find out.
The board added America’s auto industry and its farmers would likely be harmed and that Canada and Mexico could strike back:
Then there’s the prospect of retaliation, which Canada and Mexico have shown they know how to do for maximum political impact. In 2009 the Obama Administration and Congressional Democrats ended a pilot program that allowed Mexican long-haul truckers into the U.S. as stipulated in Nafta. Mexico responded with targeted retaliation on 90 U.S. goods to pressure industries in key Congressional districts.
These included California grapes and wine, Oregon Christmas trees and cherries, jams and jellies from Ohio and North Dakota soy. When Mr. Trump imposed steel and aluminum tariffs in 2018, Mexico got results using the same tactic, putting tariffs on steel, pork products, fresh cheese and bourbon.
The board concluded, “None of this is supposed to happen under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement that Mr. Trump negotiated and signed in his first term. The U.S. willingness to ignore its treaty obligations, even with friends, won’t make other countries eager to do deals. Maybe Mr. Trump will claim victory and pull back if he wins some token concessions. But if a North American trade war persists, it will qualify as one of the dumbest in history.”
