Dear editor:
Tariffs are an immoral trade restriction — full stop. It doesn’t matter if they’re retaliatory they should never be used by governments. They are a penalty imposed by the government upon its citizens.
That said, we are seeing 25 per cent tariffs imposed by Trump on Canadian exports — so what should we do to help Canadians being affected?
We shouldn’t ban American products from our shelves. Please, Premier Ford, abandon your plans to take American wines off our shelves. Canadians should be free to purchase American products even at a time when their president is restricting American’s freedom to purchase Canadian products.
We shouldn’t impose Canadian tariffs on American goods coming into Canada. Implementing a tariff in retaliation to another country is like punching yourself in the face and expecting the other person to feel it. President Trump doesn’t realize it — because he’s economically illiterate — but he’s about to cripple the American economy with these 25 per cent tariffs. Countless American business’ cost of goods sold will soar because of these tariffs and as such Americans will be far worse off than Canadians.
We shouldn’t block exports to America. This would be worse than tariffs because it would be a complete violation of our right to trade freely. For example, Alberta oil exports. Albertans are not to blame for President Trump’s poor choices. As such, we should not penalize Albertans, nor, any Canadian in response to his bad trade policies.
So what should we do? We should condemn President Trump in the harshest of terms. All levels of government and the Canadian people should condemn his actions publicly. And, to stress the unjust nature of his trade policies we should lead by example and remove any tariffs Canada has in place on American exports to show what a proper trade policy looks like.
Should we buy Canadian? Not necessarily. We shouldn’t mindlessly buy Canadian products because of some misplaced sense of duty to the collective. We should, however, proudly buy Canadian products that are equal to or superior to American products and fortunately we have the best wine in the world. So this weekend, buy some superior Canadian wine and raise a glass to the condemnation of President Trump. I know I will be.
Alexander Evans
NOTL
