Tag: Canada

How Ronald Reagan is Reigniting the Canada-US Trade Conflict

Published on by CIGH Exeter
Mulroney and Reagan signing the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (CUSFTA), credit: The Canadian Press/AP, Barry Thumma

Francine McKenzie
Western University

Like so many of America’s trading partners, President Trump’s announcement of Liberation Day in April 2025 and the introduction of new and higher tariffs rocked Canada. Since the initial jolt, officials from the two long-time trade partners and allies have met to resolve their trade dispute. An uneasy calm started to settle in. But now Canada-US trade relations are worse than ever. The reason: a dispute about Ronald Reagan’s views on trade.

Can the free-trade beliefs of Reagan, who was President of the United States from 1981-1989, cause a breakdown in the Canada-US trade relationship today?

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No, Trump’s Coercive Use of Tariffs Isn’t New

Published on by CIGH Exeter

Marc-William Palen
History Department, University of Exeter

“Tariff Man” Trump continues to tear up the trading system while also making imperial demands for territorial expansion. To just about everyone’s surprise, his grand colonial scheme to “make America great again” now includes making Canada the 51st state – and using the threat of punitive tariffs to get what he wants.

Some, like the Washington Post‘s Max Boot, have been making the case that Trump’s coercive use of tariffs to obtain concessions “unrelated to trade” is “novel.”

But though Trump often cites 19th-century pro-tariff President William McKinley as his inspiration, Trump is using tariffs quite differently from the way that most other U.S. presidents — or other world leaders — have used them. Typically, tariffs are enacted either to raise revenue or to protect domestic industries from foreign competition. Trump, by contrast, is using tariffs as a coercive instrument of statecraft to achieve aims that are unrelated to trade.

Boot’s piece raises good points of comparison, including parallels with Chinese economic coercion today. And I agree that the results of Trump’s tariffs will likely be a net negative for the United States.

But I disagree that Trump’s coercive use of tariffs is new; rather, it’s straight out of the GOP’s old protectionist playbook.

Continue reading “No, Trump’s Coercive Use of Tariffs Isn’t New” →