Here’s a rule of thumb for international relations that’ll rarely see you wrong: if China doesn’t like it, it’s probably the right thing.
Especially when it comes to international trade.
China’s Ambassador in Canberra has warned Australia not to allow Donald Trump’s election in the US to undermine the nation’s recently stabilised ties with Beijing.
“Stabilised”, it’s worth remembering, after China launched a brutal trade war against Australia, after the former government had the temerity to ask how Covid managed to emerge in China. And only “stabilised” after Anthony Albanese’s shameless grovelling.
So, give ’em hell, Donald.
President-elect Donald Trump threatened on Monday to impose tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico as well as China that will remain in place until they stem the flow of drugs and illegal immigration coming into the United States.
In a post to his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump indicated that he would begin his second term with a flurry of executive orders that would include tariffs on U.S. neighbors.
“On January 20th, as one of my many first Executive Orders, I will sign all necessary documents to charge Mexico and Canada a 25% Tariff on ALL products coming into the United States, and its ridiculous Open Borders,” he said.
Trump added: “This Tariff will remain in effect until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country! Both Mexico and Canada have the absolute right and power to easily solve this long simmering problem. We hereby demand that they use this power, and until such time that they do, it is time for them to pay a very big price!”
Just as they should be made to pay reparations to the rest of the world for engineering Covid and then standing by while it crippled the globe.
Naturally, the mainstream media are horrified that an American president would put his country’s interest first.
Canada’s exports to the United States were worth US$439.6bn during 2023, according to the United Nations COMTRADE database on international trade.
Meanwhile, Mexico’s exports to the United States were US$452.29bn in 2022, according to the same UN database.
And millions of illegal immigrants, including tens of thousands of murderers and rapists. Not to mention drugs. Lots of drugs. But don’t expect the MSM to tell the truth about that.
Such tariffs likely wouldn’t stem the flow of illegal drugs into the US. Most fentanyl that enters the US is brought in by US citizens at legal ports of entry.
About those “US citizens”…
82.1% of individuals sentenced for fentanyl trafficking were men. 39.5% were Hispanic.
In fact, just a fifth were white. And that’s just the ones who were caught “at legal ports of entry”.
Almost certainly far more drugs are smuggled in by illegals via non-legal ports of entry. The Rio Grande, for instance.
In which case, Trump’s border crackdown will have the secondary effect of leading to a precipitous decline in drug smuggling. At the same time, the tariff punishment might encourage the Mexican government to finally get serious about its endemic drug problems.
