U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to pause his so-called reciprocal tariffs put yet another nail in the coffin that is Washington’s international reputation as a reliable trade partner.
After a wild Wednesday in which the S&P 500 won back about half of the value it had lost since Apr. 2, U.S. stocks reversed course. Having caught their breath and done a bit of math, investors realized that Trump’s pause was negated by another dramatic increase in tariffs on Chinese exports to the U.S., this time to 145%.
Washington officials spent Thursday blathering about the Art of the Deal, while Beijing officials found ever more creative ways to say that Trump is a very bad man.
I spoke with David-Alexandre Brassard, chief economist at CPA Canada, to get his take on what all of this means here at home.
“I do not see it as a relief for Canada,” he said. “It pushes China away from the West.”
International trade is so dependent on China’s role as a low-cost goods provider that a U.S.-China trade war has the potential to impact the global economy just as dramatically as the tariffs Trump just paused, Brassard told me.
“We don’t want China out of our supply chains,” he said.
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