Welcome to The Logoff: President Donald Trump’s wide-ranging tariff campaign is supposed to rest on an emergency authority — one he’s now using to ratchet up tariffs on one of America’s biggest trading partners in a fit of pique.
What happened? Over the weekend, Trump raised the US tariff rate on Canada by 10 percent in response to an ad by the government of Ontario, which featured portions of a speech by President Ronald Reagan criticizing tariffs.
In the ad, Reagan is heard warning that, “When someone says, ‘let's impose tariffs on foreign imports,’ it looks like they're doing the patriotic thing by protecting American products and jobs. And sometimes, for a short while it works, but only for a short time.”
The ad was paused on Monday, but only after airing widely in the US, including during two World Series games (which this year features a Canadian team, the Toronto Blue Jays).
What’s the context? Trump has acted aggressively toward Canada since returning to office, repeatedly threatening to annex the country as a 51st state and imposing a 35 percent tariff on many exports (and even higher tariff rates on some goods). Last week, he also suspended ongoing US-Canada trade negotiations over the ad.
What’s the big picture? Trump’s legal theory for his tariff power rests on a 1977 law called the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. As the name suggests, it’s intended to address “unusual and extraordinary threat[s]” — not the president’s anger over critical ads by foreign governments.
Vox’s Ian Millhiser has argued previously that the tariffs are clearly illegal; whether they will be allowed to remain in effect, however, is still an open question, which the Supreme Court is due to weigh in on in its upcoming term.
