Another argument is that the United States needs domestic supply of strategic goods, including steel and aluminum, in case of emergency. It’s definitely better not to depend on unreliable and faraway foreign producers for strategic goods. However, this argument makes the most sense with respect to China. If a war broke out between the United States and China over Taiwan, we could of course not rely on Beijing to keep shipping us steel and aluminum with which to build a bigger U.S. Navy and Air Force to oppose the People’s Liberation Army.
The Chinese Communist Party is dictatorial and does not like U.S. democracy, so would jump at the chance to kick us while we’re down. But Canada is nothing like China. It is a friendly democracy just across the border. There’s no real strategic threat from Canada denying strategic goods to the United States in some future hour of need.
Finally, there’s the argument that we can make cars and produce lumber in the United States, so there is no good reason to import these commodities from Canada. This is an economic nationalist argument with immense repercussions for Canada’s economy, since Canada is relatively economically small and closely linked to the U.S. economy. If Canada doesn’t like the new tariffs, goes the argument, then it can always join the United States as our 51st state. Then there would be no tariffs.
This dynamic of “join or get tariffed,” if it became more common internationally, would give larger economies power over smaller ones to force them into being annexed. Over time that approach could force much of the world into some kind of political union, decreasing the diverse international system of free states, large and small, living in harmony. Russia could then more easily expand into the former Soviet republics, and China could impose its will more easily on its neighbors. Is that really the kind of world that Americans want?
Part of what gives smaller states like Canada freedom is the freedom to trade with larger states. Without that freedom, smaller countries would have a hard time surviving. Free trade is therefore good for freedom when it supports free countries. The same is not true of dictatorships like China and Russia, which is why U.S. tariffs and economic sanctions make sense against them. Just because economic force makes sense against these dictators does not mean that it makes sense against a small democracy like Canada.
Doing our utmost to protect Canada’s freedom, and therefore our own, requires that we err on the side of free trade with our great neighbor to the north. We do so because Canada is an ally, a democracy, and a friend. We value Canada’s freedom because we value our own. Decent people want good things for their friends, and do not compel friends with economic sanctions or tariffs to force them into a closer embrace. Such an embrace must be accepted voluntarily, or not at all.
Trying to force Canada into a union with tariffs is a rejection of America’s history and values. I submit that this is not who we are. Rather, Americans stand for the freedom of Canada to choose both free markets, and the freedom associated with its own sovereignty. That is true friendship.