U.S. President Donald Trump's escalating trade tactics are forcing Canada to reconsider economic ties with its neighbor, warned a Japan-based Canadian international affairs expert.
Since taking office, Trump has introduced aggressive tariff policies that have strained relations with Canada, one of the United States' closest allies, announcing a 25 percent additional tariff on Canadian exports earlier this week before agreeing to delay their imposition for 30 days.
In an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN), Benoit Hardy-Chartrand, a Canadian professor at the Temple University Japan Campus in Tokyo, emphasized that the move may have already had unintended consequences.
"(He) has done something that nobody else was able to do in Canada for years, which is to unite the whole political class of Canada. We've seen the whole political class in Canada united against Trump. So that's quite an achievement by the American President. Canada is one of the United States' closest allies, if not the closest ally. Diplomacy runs on trust, it runs on mutual feelings of benevolence. And that's not what we have seen from the Trump administration so," said Hardy-Chartrand.
"Now, his repeated threats to annex Canada have been just another baffling change or aspect of his new policies. And that is, again, what is causing a lot of anxiety in Canada because they (the U.S.) are our biggest trading partner, they are extremely important to our prosperity, and now that we have a leader like this, there's a lot of uncertainty ahead for the next four years," added the professor.
He stressed that Canada and other countries are now accelerating efforts to diversify their trade partnerships, recognizing that over-reliance on the U.S. may not be worth the risk.
"I think indeed this is going to provide further impetus for countries around the world, especially countries that have longstanding trading partnerships with the United States to try to hedge their bets a little more and diversify their trading partners. We are seeing that in Canada. For a few years, Canadians, Canadian officials have talked about diversifying our trade partners. Right now about 70 percent of Canada's trade goes to the United States. So we're trying to bring that number a little bit further down," he said.
According to the scholar, other U.S. allies like Japan and South Korea are closely watching the U.S.' treatment of Canada and questioning if they too might face similar economic pressure.
"These two countries are looking at the current situation and wondering: If Canada, if even a close ally of the United States is treated as such, that is quite likely that we - South Korea and Japan - are going to be treated as such as well," he said.
The shift could significantly impact global trade, he added, noting that Trump's tactics are contributing to an already fractured global trading system, with long-standing supply chains potentially being reconfigured.
"That might indeed further lead to changes in supply chains, in reconfigurations of different trade partnerships, in trade blocks around the world. And already, of course, as we all know, over the last few years, we've seen an increasing fracturing of the world," said the professor.
"What's going to happen over the next four years may simply add to that global trade instability and reconfiguration of partnerships that we have already been seeing for four years," he said.
Canada, other allies to rethink U.S. trade ties amid Trump's tariff tactic: Canadian expert
