"The time for talk is done. Donald Trump is a bully ..." [View all]

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Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau Takes the Gloves Off

After more than a year of trying to make nice, Justin Trudeau finally looks fed up with Donald Trump. Canada had pushed for an exemption from Trump’s tariffs -- thinking, now naively, there’d be a perk to being a neighbor, ally and largest buyer of U.S. goods.
That all changed Thursday when Canada, along with Mexico and the European Union, lost exemptions to the U.S. metal tariffs.

Trudeau fired back with tariffs on U.S. exports of everything from whiskey to motor boats to orange juice. He said the legal basis of tariffs -- U.S. national security -- was an affront to Canadian soldiers who died fighting alongside Americans in numerous global battles.

Canada is a close U.S. military ally and the top U.S. export market, more than the U.K., Japan and Germany combined. It sells the U.S. more steel and aluminum than anyone else, in part because of deeply integrated auto and defense sectors. Trudeau cracked down on Chinese steel imports for Trump, and U.S. data show that it has a trade surplus with Canada. None of it mattered.

Patience has worn thin. “We’ve all had just about enough of Donald Trump,” Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, a Trudeau ally, told reporters.
“The reality is that our federal government has moved heaven and earth. They’ve cajoled Trump, they have soothed his ego, they’ve played to his apparently inexhaustible vanity,” she said.
“The time for talk is done. Donald Trump is a bully and the only way to deal with a bully is to stand up and push back and we have to do that.”

Full story at:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-01/trump-appeasement-fails-so-trudeau-takes-the-gloves-off