Trump’s bully tariffs spark pushbacks
President Donald Trump signed orders Feb. 1 imposing 25% trade tariffs on Canada and Mexico and 10% on socialist China. The three countries have been the largest U.S. trading partners for decades. Even economists who supported Trump fear this action.
The Feb. 3 Wall Street Journal wrote that they were sparking “the dumbest trade war in history” as the three countries began to announce their responses. Later in the day, a one-month pause in tariffs against Canada and Mexico was announced.
The White House’s pretext for setting these tariffs is that they will reduce the flow of the synthetic opioid known as fentanyl and will reduce migration. There is no evidence that these results will follow the actions nor that these are the real reasons for them.
Tariffs are a tax on imported material and goods. Trump is attempting to use tariffs as a bullying tactic against other countries to impose the economic and strategic hegemony of U.S. big business and the U.S. state. This U.S. hegemony has declined sharply in the last decades. Workers and oppressed people within the U.S. will pay a high direct price for Trump’s tariffs. The world capitalist economy faces a recession should the trade war develop.
Importers — not the countries exporting the goods — are the ones that pay taxes from the tariffs, and to maintain profits they pass that cost on to consumers in the form of higher prices. Despite making campaign promises about lowering grocery prices, Trump’s new tariffs will increase inflation.
Trump bullies Colombia
The Trump administration coerced the Colombian government into accepting arrested undocumented workers from Colombia through the dehumanizing use of military aircraft flights. Trump initially threatened a 25% tariff on goods from Colombia. After Washington also agreed to transport the migrants in a more humane manner (removing their chains), the Colombian government accepted the flights, after Colombian President Gustavo Petro initially blocked the U.S. planes.
Colombia is not a major U.S. trading partner, but its major exports include minerals, metals and coffee. Colombia was the largest U.S. client state in South America, with longstanding right-wing governments. The Colombian military cooperated with NATO — until Colombian voters elected Petro, a progressive, as their president in 2022.
Trump was successful in punching down on Colombia’s government through intimidation, and he hopes to do the same to other countries. Other governments and world leaders are preparing to push back against Trump’s threats.
Other governments push back
Brazilian officials blasted the Trump administration’s cruel deportations of both Colombian and Brazilian migrants. On Jan. 24, the first deportation flight of Brazilian citizens under the renewed Trump administration landed in the city of Manaus in Amazonas state. The flight, which departed from Alexandria, Virginia, with 158 passengers — including 88 Brazilians — was originally scheduled to land in the city of Confins, about 1,500 miles away.
U.S. authorities had shackled and chained the Brazilian passengers, and U.S. immigration officers accompanied them, even on Brazilian soil. Brazilian officials did not authorize the plane to continue due to “the use of handcuffs and chains, the poor condition of the aircraft, with a faulty air conditioning system, among other problems.” The migrants were transported to their final destination on a Brazilian Air Force flight. (CNN, Jan. 27)
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva publicly told reporters that his government would respond in kind if the U.S. imposed tariffs on Brazil, Latin America’s largest economy, and called for mutual respect: “It is very simple: if he (Trump) taxes Brazilian products, there will be reciprocity.” (Reuters, Jan. 1)
Like Lula, Mexican and Canadian officials are also resisting Trump’s threats with their own retaliatory tariffs. On Feb. 1, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum posted on platform X: “I instruct the Secretary of Economy to implement plan B that we have been working on, which includes tariff and non-tariff measures in defense of Mexico’s interests.” (CNN, Feb. 2)
In response to the Mexican president’s reaction, the White House released a slanderous statement, falsely accusing the Mexican government of having an “intolerable alliance” with drug trafficking organizations and being a “safe haven” for alleged drug cartels. (CNN, Feb. 2)
Canadian leaders enforced reactive tariffs against the U.S. shortly after Trump signed his order. At a Feb. 1 news conference, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said, “Tonight, I am announcing Canada will be responding to the U.S. trade action with 25% trade tariffs against $155 billion worth of American goods.
“This will include immediate tariffs on $30 billion worth of goods as of Tuesday [Feb. 4], followed by further tariffs on $125 billion of American products in 21 days’ time, to allow Canadian companies and supply chains to seek to find alternatives.” (CNN, Feb. 2) Trudeau also warned that U.S. consumers may suffer the consequences.
China’s Ministry of Commerce said it would file a legal case against the United States at the World Trade Organization (WTO), in response to Trump’s decision to impose 10% tariffs on Chinese goods.
In a statement, the ministry’s spokesperson, Wang Wentao, said: “The unilateral tariff increase by the United States seriously violates WTO rules. China hopes that the U.S. will objectively and rationally view and deal with its own problems, such as fentanyl, instead of threatening other countries with tariffs. China urges the U.S. to correct its wrong practices and manage differences on the basis of equality, mutual benefit and mutual respect.” (The Hill, Feb. 2)
The WTO has largely lost its ability to try legal cases since the U.S. started blocking the appointments of the appellate body judges in 2017. The appellate body basically functions as the supreme court for global trade. It hears appeals regarding decisions by WTO dispute settlement panels.
Since December 2020, all seven seats on the WTO appellate body have been vacant. The Obama and Trump administrations both stopped new appointments after the outgoing judges’ terms expired. Currently, the appellate body can only compile reports on cases.
Trump’s proposed tariffs hurt all workers
Trump has made contradictory statements about tariffs. On Jan. 31, when pressed by reporters about the impact tariffs may have on workers and consumers, Trump argued that tariffs won’t cause inflation. At the same time, Trump admitted, “There could be some temporary, short-term disruption.” (CNN, Feb. 2)
Trump’s tariffs are harmful for working and oppressed people all over the world, including workers in the U.S. Bourgeois economists warn that the tariffs will inevitably increase costs for consumers and possibly lead to major job losses.
Trump’s proposed tariffs are so risky they have even received criticism from pro-business outfits which generally support his reactionary policies, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers and the Wall Street Journal.
Workers and oppressed people in the U.S. have a material interest in uniting with working people in other countries around the world. Additionally, revolutionary Marxists and anti-imperialists should defend any country facing U.S. economic attacks.
A united, worldwide, multinational, working-class movement can collectively counter the Trump administration’s anti-worker tariffs and defeat their xenophobic “America First” agenda, which is designed to increase the wealth of the superrich.