Compared to Canada, U.S. presidents have Herculean powers granted by their constitution and Congress.
Donald J. Trump was definitely in beast mode yesterday as he returned to the Oval Office, signing more than 200 executive actions, 115 personnel actions and 42 executive orders, memoranda and proclamations.
Conspicuously absent from President Trump's Day One accomplishments was a promised 25 per cent tariff on all Canadian goods.
"On Jan. 20th, as one of my many first executive orders, I will sign all necessary documents to charge Mexico and Canada a 25 per cent tariff on all products coming into the United States, and its ridiculous open borders," Trump had written on Nov. 25 on Truth Social, his own social media platform.
"This will remain in effect until such time as drugs, in particular fentanyl, and all illegal aliens stop this invasion of our country!
"Both Mexico and Canada have the absolute right and power to easily solve this long simmering problem. We hereby demand that they use this power, and until such time that they do, it is time for them to pay a very big price!" Trump wrote.
Although the 47th president took no decisive action on tariffs on Monday, he sent a clear signal in his inauguration speech that he hasn't forgotten his November broadside aimed at America's #1 trading partner.
"I will immediately begin the overhaul of our trade system to protect American workers and families. Instead of taxing our citizens to enrich other countries, we will tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens," the president said.
"For this purpose, we are establishing the External Revenue Service to collect all tariffs, duties and revenues. It will be massive amounts of money pouring into our treasury coming from foreign sources."
On Monday evening, Trump made what appeared to be a slightly softer statement to reporters: “I think we’ll do it on Feb. 1."
One Canadian who's keeping a close eye on the Trumpian tariff talk is Sault Ste. Marie Mayor Matthew Shoemaker.
As a lawyer, Shoemaker knows how deals get done.
Is it possible that the president, supposed co-author of the 1987 bestseller Trump: Art of the Deal, might be bluffing about his wish to slap us with crippling tariffs?
"Well, he's used them in the past," Shoemaker tells SooToday.
"I don't know that there may be negotiating strategy to it, but it's negotiating strategy that he's obviously willing to follow through with, if the need be.
"And so I think there is some willingness on his part to adopt tariffs, I would say, especially as it approaches the renegotiation of NAFTA 2, so I would expect that it will remain a hotly debated topic until such time as we are past the next round of NAFTA negotiations.
"Hopefully that settles the issue for some period of time into the future."
Shoemaker spoke to us after a weekend virtual meeting of Canadian border city mayors, representing some of the same communities that advised the federal government during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"There's not tons of comfort in the fact that [the tariffs] aren't being imposed today, although I think any date that they're not imposed is one day closer towards a victory on the issue," the Sault mayor said.
Participants with Shoemaker during the Saturday virtual meeting included mayors from:
- Sarnia, Windsor, Pelee Island, Chatham-Kent and Amherstburg in Ontario
- Stanstead in Quebec
- Nelson and Surrey in British Columbia
- St. Stephen in New Brunswick
- the new mayor of the non-border city of Regina
"I think everyone's nervous about it," Shoemaker said.
"There is not a real clear path on what the Canadian government was going to do if the tariffs were imposed. There was a lot of talk that there were things that were going to happen, potentially countertariffs, potentially limiting exports, but there was no good sense in our communities that there was a definite roadmap that we could look to to say that we agree with this or we don't agree with that, and that lack of clarity was causing some consternation.
"What we will look to do, from my general understanding of the conversation that we had on Saturday, is ask the federal government and our respective premiers to keep us in the loop and keep us updated on their strategies, because we will be kind of the front line."
In a social media post, Shoemaker said the border mayors have a strong alliance and are dedicated to working together to protect local economies and important cross-border ties that help cities in both countries to thrive.
We also asked the mayor about the impact a 25 per cent tariff might have on our largest employer, Algoma Steel:
"Well, I know the the economic impact it had on them last time," he said.
"I don't know if that's – you know – a trade secret, so I'll leave it to them to give you the direct financial impact.
"But it has been shared with me, and it is very significant and very detrimental if tariffs are imposed again.
"Any tariff action would require a response from our government to make sure that they are able to continue to have continued viability, and which ensures or supports the continued viability of our whole community, largely, or at least 50 per cent of it, given the direct and indirect offshoots from Algoma's economic impact."
In 2018, Algoma Steel was hammered by a 25-per-cent tariff slapped by Trump on Canadian steel.
In October of that year, the court-appointed monitor overseeing Algoma's emergence from insolvency protection estimated the tariff's negative cash impact on the Sault steelmaker at $55 million during the first three months.
The estimate didn't include September, a month when Algoma is especially vulnerable because it must stockpile raw materials in the fall to provide enough inventory to operate from January to March when the Great Lakes freeze over.
