Tod Maffin reports Trump's Commerce Secretary hinted at compromise as the trade war loses domestic support. Only 4% of Canadians would accept a partial deal, and Canadian favorability toward the U.S. has dropped to 24%, barely above China's 20%. Grocery prices are expected to rise within days.
Chapters
Donald Trump might already be cracking. It's Wednesday, March 4th. Here's your trade war update. Commerce Secretary in the US yesterday said that there may be a deal announced today that is kind of like a me too in the middle deal. Apparently Trump was really quite rattled that Americans didn't rather care for his whole trade war thing. Stock markets crashed, his base was upset with him and everything. So most Canadian premiers came out yesterday and today and said any deal that is not a complete backdown from Trump is a non-starter. There's a new Angus Reid poll out today that says the same thing. Only Only 4% of Canadians would accept anything less than Trump completely backing down. And even when he does, the long-term damage will be there.
Even if the tariffs are withdrawn, we will never go back to where we were 3 months ago. We will never trust the Americans in the same way.
There's also word that Justin Trudeau in his speech yesterday got under Donald Trump's skin by calling him Donald a couple of times. Alberta's premier— Americans, Alberta is like our Texas— finally came out yesterday with a statement. She'd been kind of absent all day after this whole thing started, and she gave her statement not too long ago. To Canadians, not to Albertans, but to a financial cable news network in the US, because of course she did. Other than that, nothing. No pulling of booze from her province's shelves, nothing. The Prime Minister is trying to speak with Trump today. Our Foreign Affairs Minister is meeting with Marco Rubio today. As for when Canadians will start to feel this, the CBC says most likely at the grocery store first, maybe in the next day or two. Remember, those are perishable goods and they don't last long. Also, that Angus Reid poll found that Canadian favorability of the US is down to 24%. Just to put that in perspective, China is at 20%. Follow for more daily trade war updates and crappy little opinion pieces. Elbows up.
