Trump says he’s taking action to bar Canadian-made products from eligibility for certain U.S. government purchasing contracts.
In a post to his Truth Social platform, Trump said he is directing the General Services Administration — the independent agency that oversees federal government procurement — to remove Canadian-origin products from its “multiple award schedules.”
Those schedules account for more than $50 billion US worth of procurement per year, said Trump, but it’s unclear how much of that is made up of Canadian goods.
“The Canadian Government, including Canadian Provinces, have banned American Small Businesses and Companies from selling into their Government Procurement Markets,” said Trump in the post. “From now on, NO RECIPROCITY – NO ACCESS!”
Trump said the removal would stay in place “unless Canada restores full and fair reciprocity for American Farmers and Companies.”
I appreciate the sentiment and I’ve felt similarly of late, but we don’t want to “empty the chamber” all at once.
One of the risks of escalation is that the other side may stop fearing what you’re going to do next. This is what happened with Iran: they no longer have any fear of the US whatsoever.
I know Trump is never going to fear anything Canada can do, but ordinary Americans may still worry. We should be trying to turn up the pressure slowly, and make sure that Americans keep turning against Trump rather than starting to see Canadians as the enemy, which is what he wants.
Absolutely. We need to appear to the world (and any sane Americans who remain) as the party in this dispute who is not the aggressor.
We need to react firmly but calmly, and in a reasonable manner.