The US president\u2019s tariffs pose as worker protection, but they\u2019re a smokescreen \u2013 his bluster trades US credibility for a $4.6tn tax-cutting giveaway to the rich<\/p>\n
In 2020, Donald Trump scrapped the North American free trade agreement, replacing it with the \u201cUnited States Mexico Canada agreement<\/a>\u201d, which he bragged was \u201cthe fairest, most balanced, and beneficial\u201d trade deal ever. That agreement between the three nations explicitly bans tariff hikes beyond what was agreed. Yet, on his return to the White House, Mr Trump immediately threatened steep levies on goods from Canada and Mexico \u2013 the US\u2019s key allies \u2013 retreating only after they made token concessions<\/a> on drugs and illegal immigration. Now, he\u2019s vowing fresh steel and aluminum<\/a> tariffs, a direct hit on Canada.<\/p>\n Mr Trump is exploiting presidential emergency powers<\/a> to push these tariffs with no real constraints. The bottom line is the US is breaking its word. Friends, such as the EU and the UK<\/a>, as well as opponents like China<\/a> are also under threat. Allies will think twice before signing deals with Washington, fearing future betrayals<\/a>. Yet Mr Trump\u2019s administration doesn\u2019t care \u2013 it thrives on defying global norms. Skipping this year\u2019s G20 summit <\/a>\u2013 citing host South Africa\u2019s focus on diversity, equality and climate action, alongside Elon Musk\u2019s fixation on white South African farmers \u2013 Mr Trump\u2019s team is mulling an exit from the IMF and World Bank<\/a>.<\/p>\n Continue reading…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The US president\u2019s tariffs pose as worker protection, but they\u2019re a smokescreen \u2013 his bluster trades US credibility for a $4.6tn tax-cutting giveaway to the rich In 2020, Donald Trump scrapped the North American free trade agreement, replacing it with the \u201cUnited States Mexico Canada agreement\u201d, which he bragged was \u201cthe fairest, most balanced, and … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32987\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}