Trump can be convinced: negotiator

Photo: The Canadian Press

Canada’s former top trade negotiator said Thursday that if nations around the world co-ordinate their responses to Donald Trump’s global trade war, the U.S. president would be more likely to back away from tariffs sooner.

Speaking on a trade panel at the left-leaning Broadbent Institute’s conference in Ottawa on Thursday, Steve Verheul said that Trump’s abrupt change of course this week shows his administration is vulnerable to financial and market pressures.

“I think retaliation can be a useful tool, and it’s unfortunate that most of the rest of the world didn’t see it that way,” Verheul said. “Because I think if there had been a more co-ordinated response from countries around the world, then we could have seen this fall away even more quickly.”

As U.S. stocks dropped again Thursday, continuing a tumultuous week in the markets, Trump said he thinks “we’re in very good shape.”

“We think we are doing very well,” Trump said during a meeting with his cabinet Thursday. “Again, there will be a transition cost and transition problems, but in the end it’s going to be a beautiful thing.”

Despite the market rally after Trump abruptly reversed course Wednesday by pausing his so-called “reciprocal” tariffs for 90 days, much of world trade remains under massive U.S. duties.

Trump kept in place a universal 10% tariff, as well as 25% duties on steel, aluminum and automobile imports to the United States. The president also pushed up tariffs on Chinese imports to 125%.

The White House confirmed Thursday that the tariffs stack on top of fentanyl-related duties, adding up to a 145% tariff on Chinese imports. Beijing’s 84% retaliatory tariffs on U.S. products came into force on Thursday—escalating the trade war between the world’s two largest economies.

U.S. tariffs on Canada have not changed.

Canada and China are the only countries so far to maintain retaliatory tariffs on the United States. The European Union announced a 90-day pause on its countermeasures Thursday.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Wednesday that if Canada keeps its retaliatory measures in place, it “would be a really, really bad choice.”

Ontario Premier Doug Ford told CNN on Thursday that he was “shocked” when Trump’s tariffs on Canada were not included in his 90-day pause. He said Canada would be ready to drop its retaliatory measures “tomorrow” if Trump abandons his tariffs.