The conservative editorial board of the Wall Street Journal, a frequent critic of President Donald Trump's tariff schemes, lashed out in frustration on Friday following Trump's move to place a new round of tariffs on Canada.
"Would Tariff Man please take a summer vacation for the good of the nation?" wrote the board. "Stocks tumbled on Friday after President Trump announced he will raise tariffs on Canada to 35%, starting Aug. 1. Then in an interview with NBC, Mr. Trump floated increasing his current 10% across-the-board tariffs on many countries to 15% or 20%."
This follows months of chaos and uncertainty, in which Trump initially agreed to exempt all Canadian imports covered by the USMCA trade deal he negotiated in his first term — which itself had essentially just been the Trans-Pacific Partnership he canceled upon taking office, but only covering countries under the earlier NAFTA trade deal.
"For the record, since Mr. Trump has a fixation with trade deficits, the U.S. had a surplus with Canada last year when excluding $141 billion in crude oil imports," the board wrote. "Canadian crude feeds refineries in the Midwest and some on the Gulf Coast that aren’t equipped to process U.S. shale blends. Crimping that flow would eliminate the overall trade deficit with Canada, but it would also raise costs for U.S. consumers, while sending dollars to the Middle East instead."
Ultimately, the board wrote, Trump is just making the world economy worse even as he believes he's being a shrewd negotiator.
"Mr. Trump seems to think that his unpredictability is a negotiating advantage," the board concluded. "But keeping trading partners guessing — along with investors and U.S. companies with global supply chains — isn’t a recipe for economic strength."
