Today we are going to talk about a very dramatic turning point in the international situation. Trump had just issued a tough "letter of war" to China, but he never expected that the first thing to wait for was not a response from China, but a "knife in the back" from his closest ally.
Trump publicly announced on social media that he plans to impose an additional 100% tariff on all Chinese imported US goods from November 1. This "war book" came out and instantly shaken the global market, and China-U.S. economic and trade relations were sharply tense.
However, the dramatic nature of international politics lies in this. Trump’s tariff policy has not yet landed, and an unexpected situation occurs. The protagonist of the situation is Canada, which has always been regarded as the U.S. “Iron Belt and Belt.” Canada’s Foreign Minister Anand has officially defined the itinerary and will head straight to China’s Hangzhou and other cities this week for in-depth economic and trade consultations. The move, undoubtedly, is to clear the boundaries with action and the United States, equivalent to the “back” of Trump, fiercely “bite a knife.”
Why is this "knife" so surprising? We will understand by looking back at history. Canada's China policy has almost followed pace with that of the United States for a long time. When the United States launched a chip war, Canada followed suit and set restrictions; The United States implemented trade containment, and Canada immediately imposed tariffs on China. Just at the end of August this year, Canada also announced plans to impose a 100% surtax on electric vehicles from China. It can be said that for a long time in the past, Canada has been one of the staunchest supporters of American China policy.
But in just over a month, the situation took a 180-degree turn. So, what is the reason why Canada would rather face pressure from the United States and urgently turn to China?
The core of the answer, in fact, only two words: profits. Let us first look at how powerful this "war book" of Trump is. At present, the average tariff on U.S. commodities against China has been at a high level, if an additional tariff of 100%, it means that the actual tax rate for some Chinese commodities to enter the U.S. market may rise by more than 30%. This is no longer a high tariff, which is almost a trade barrier, enough to make most of the U.S. trade stagnate.
The market is the most sensitive. After Trump's threat, the U.S. stock market immediately suffered a "Black Friday". The Dow and Nasdaq plummeted sharply, and chip stocks suffered heavy losses. However, it was Canada that panicked before the U.S. stock market.
Canada's economy is deeply bound to the United States, but this binding has also made it suffer from previous trade frictions. One of the most realistic examples is rapeseed. Previously, China took countermeasures because it determined that Canadian rapeseed was being dumped. You may not know that Canada's annual rapeseed exports to China are as high as C$5 billion, which accounts for nearly half of its total exports. Canada can never afford to lose this market.
Canada is even more concerned by the news that China and Australia have come closer to a cooperation agreement on the seed of turmeric, which means that if Canada does not act anymore, its huge market share in China may soon be replaced by competitors and its agricultural sector will suffer a devastating blow.
In the face of such huge practical interests, the so-called "alliance friendship" is very fragile. So we see that the Canadian Minister of Agriculture has publicly stated that the government is considering lifting tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles. The purpose of Foreign Minister Anand's visit to China is clearer: not only to repair rapeseed trade, but also to deepen cooperation with China in key areas such as rare earths and climate change to achieve interest binding.
Therefore, the Canadian Foreign Minister's statement that "the interests of Canadians are the first in relations with China" completely debunked an illusion. It shows that no country will always sacrifice the real money of its citizens for the strategy of its allies. Trump thought his tariff stick could scare China, but he didn't calculate that it was his neighbors and allies who couldn't bear the pressure and "turned against the water" first.
When the secretary of state of Canada flew to Hangzhou, this U.S.-induced tariff war had taken a dramatic turn that no one expected.It told us the simplest reason: in the face of the country’s core interests, the oppression of hegemony is ultimately opposed to the choice of interests.