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When the Wall Street Journal calls out your economic policies as 'Dumb' then most US Presidents would listen.  Not this one - he's doubling down on his dumbness and it is likely to cost his country and its citizens dearly.

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Leaving China aside, Mr Trump's justification for his economic assault on the neighbours makes no sense. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt says they've "enabled illegal drugs to pour into America." But drugs have flowed into the U.S. for decades, and will continue to do so as long as Americans keep using them. Neither country can stop it.

Drugs may be an excuse since Mr Trump has made clear he likes tariffs for their own sake. "We don't need products that they have," Mr Trump said on Thursday. "We have all the oil you need. We have all the trees you need, meaning the lumber"

Mr Trump sometimes sounds as if the U.S. shouldn't import anything at all, that America can be a perfectly closed economy making everything at home.  This is called autarky, and isn't the world we live in, or one we should want to live in, as Mr Trump may soon find out.  (N.B. North Korea and Nazi Germany are two examples of nations that have pursued a policy of autarky)

Take the U.S. auto industry, which is really a North American industry, because supply chains in the three countries are highly integrated.  In 2024 Canada supplied almost 13% of U.S. imports of auto parts and Mexico nearly 42%.  Industry experts say a vehicle made on the continent goes back and forth across borders a half a dozen times or more, as companies source components and add value in the most cost effective ways.

Tariffs will also cause mayhem in the cross border trade in farm goods. Mexico food exports made up about 23% of total U.S. agricultural imports while Canada supplied 20%. Many top U.S. growers have moved to Mexico because limits on legal immigration have made it hard to find workers in the U.S. Mexico now supplied 90% of avocados sold in the U.S.  Is Mr Trump now an avocado nationalist?

[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.wsj.com/opinion/donald-trump-tariffs-25-percent-mexico-canada-trade-economy-84476fb2[/URL]