President Donald Trump brought his tariff argument to a friendly crowd in Rock Hill, South Carolina, on Thursday — and told them it is working. Running through his case against Canada, he said the United States lost $90 billion with its northern neighbour last year, declared that America is not going to subsidize Canada, and then credited the tariffs he has piled on Canadian goods for a change of attitude in Ottawa: "We put tariffs on them, and they're treating us extremely nicely lately."
It was a strikingly warm line from a president who has spent months in a tariff war with Canada, and it came in the middle of a midterm rally at the Rock Hill Sports & Event Center for Republican Senator Darline Graham, who is fighting to hold her seat against Democrat Annie Andrews on Tuesday. Trump was in South Carolina for the second time in a month, and the Canada passage was classic Trump trade doctrine delivered as a victory lap: the deficit is the problem, the tariffs are the lever, and the proof the lever works is that Canada, in his telling, has started treating the United States "extremely nicely."
The warmth has been building for days. On Friday, Trump said he would lift some of the 50 percent tariffs on Canadian goods, and on Sunday, at a rally in Michigan, he said Canada was "willing to give us anything at this moment" and that a deal would be settled "pretty soon." Prime Minister Mark Carney, for his part, said Monday that the talks had seen a "slight, slight intensification" — while insisting that any progress has come because Washington is moving closer to Canada's position. A White House economic adviser, Kevin Hassett, has suggested the two countries are close to a deal.
Ottawa's own readout this week was cooler. On Wednesday, a Canadian government official said there has been only limited progress in the talks aimed at easing the American tariffs on Canadian steel and autos — duties of up to 50 percent on steel and 25 percent on cars and trucks. The two economies are so intertwined that car and metal parts cross the border again and again before a finished vehicle rolls off a line, and companies on both sides say what they need most is certainty about what those crossings will cost. That is what is at stake for American workers and shoppers: the same tariffs Trump credits with bringing Canada to the table also sit on the steel, aluminum and auto parts that feed American factories, and an agreement that settles them would take a layer of cost and guesswork out of everything built from Canadian metal.
Nothing is signed yet. The broader negotiation broke down in August, when Canada walked away from terms its prime minister called red lines and Washington answered with 50 percent tariffs on a wide range of Canadian goods; Canada retaliated with duties of its own. Carney said this week that Canada is ready to sign an agreement that serves both countries, but added, "we're not at that position right now." For South Carolina's voters, the takeaway Trump wanted was simpler: the pressure is his, the movement is Canada's, and — in the president's words — "they're treating us extremely nicely lately."
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