US Tariffs Threaten Canada’s Sovereignty: Is That Really What Americans Want?

Flags fly above the Peace Arch monument on the border between the United States and Canada in Blaine, Washington, on Feb. 1, 2025. Aprilflower/Shutterstock

Commentary

President Donald Trump is following his successful tariffs on China with broader tariffs against America’s top trade partners, including Canada, Mexico, and the European Union.

There are various arguments for U.S. tariffs on Canada, including as a sanction on Canada’s alleged lax border security that admits deadly fentanyl and illegal immigrants into the United States. But that argument is now a bit long in the tooth, both because only about 1 percent of illegal immigrants and fentanyl come from Canada, and since Ottawa improved cooperation with Washington on these matters in early February.

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.

Offering to accept Canada as the 51st state is fine. But so far, neither of the two main political parties in Canada want their broad and fair land to join our republic. That the Trump administration “offered” membership in our union under the duress of tariffs makes it even less attractive to Canadians. Most Canadians are outraged, and voting with their wallets. They are taking American liquor off their shelves. Canadian travel bookings to the United States are down about 20 percent since Feb. 1. Most Canadians would far rather undergo economic pain than accept a subordinate position to the United States through an economically forced annexation.

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?

The long history of the United States taking the side of small states against larger aggressors indicates that Americans have generally stood up for the little guy against the bully. This attitude in support of the underdog goes back to our Revolutionary War and the Spirit of ‘76 against the King of England and his incipient British Empire. We fought two world wars against the attempts of Germany, Japan, and Italy to force their empires on smaller or less organized states. We fought North Korea and North Vietnam when they tried to capture their southern neighbors. We lost in Vietnam but fought on to help defeat the Russians in Afghanistan and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq when it tried to conquer Kuwait.

Since World War I, the United States has always stood squarely for a world of free nation states and against the empires and bullies of the day. Ironically, standing on that principle gave us the international power that we as a nation have today. The world’s democracies trust America, and so welcome U.S. military bases and technologies into their countries. Forward-deployed U.S. troops improve the security of our allies, ensure that they cannot be conquered and used against us, and therefore ultimately hold back the tyrants who threaten us.

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.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.