With Americans heading to the polls in November to choose their next president, it bears pondering how each candidate’s approach may impact Canada.
While neither of the main contenders has specifically addressed what his or her foreign policy for Canada may be, Donald Trump’s four years in office, Kamala Harris’s tenure as vice president of the Biden administration, and their various recent public postures offer some clues.
Both candidates have some Canadian connections as well. Ms. Harris spent some of her teen years in Montreal, and Mr. Trump’s vice president pick, Sen. J.D. Vance, is
good friends with Conservative MP Jamil Jivani, the two having attended college together.
Trump on Trade, Economics
With his signature “America First” policies, Mr. Trump’s tenure introduced a number of protectionist measures aimed at prioritizing his country’s national interests over those of trading partners, including Canada.
During his time in office, Mr. Trump renegotiated the
North American Free Trade Agreement, with the new deal dictating that 75 percent of auto content must come from North America, up from the previous 62.5 percent.
It also incentivized the use of high-wage manufacturing labour, a move expected to boost production in the United States and Canada, which suffered from lost jobs to Mexico for years.
Canada made some concessions as part of the new U.S.–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA), by opening up its markets more to U.S. dairy farmers, providing “new tariff rate quotas” exclusively for the United States.
Mr. Trump also in 2018 imposed tariffs on most countries of 25 percent on steel imports and 10 percent on aluminum, which led Canada to
respond in kind. Those tariffs were lifted in 2019. The Trump administration then stated in 2020 that it would re-introduce tariffs on
Canadian aluminum, effective Aug. 16 that year, but
withdrew the request the following month,
avoiding retaliation.
