Trump’s Bullying Trade Tactics Will Backfire
The president says his tariffs are designed to punish Beijing for its lack of action on the illicit drug trade. It will have the opposite effect.
Bracing for collateral damage from Trump’s tariffs.
Photographer: Mark Schiefelbein/AFP/Getty Images
Donald Trump’s global trade war has begun. Among other demands, he wants two of America’s largest trading partners to stop allowing the flow of narcotics and immigrants into the US. China is also in his sights: Trump on Saturday imposed a blanket 10% levy on Beijing, and 25% duties on both Canada and Mexico. He says the world’s second-largest economy hasn’t done enough to stem the drug trade or money laundering by criminal organizations. But using tariffs to bully countries will backfire.
Trump is not wrong to tackle the illicit drug trade. Over 1 million Americans have died from overdoses since the late 1990s, including more than 100,000 annually in the last few years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, many of them from fentanyl. Cracking down on this is among his voters’ top priorities, above reducing the budget deficit and improving the job market.