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Trump names his tariff man. Here’s what he’s said and what it means for Canada

Trump names his tariff man. Here’s what he’s said and what it means for Canada

This item is part of Watching Washington, a regular dispatch from CBC News correspondents reporting on U.S. politics and developments that affect Canadians. 

What’s new

Donald Trump now has a point man for his plan to impose punishing trade tariffs. Someone who’s publicly shared his views on them. 

Howard Lutnick will now wield influence over an issue with major consequences over the global economy. 

Trump hasn’t just nominated the Wall Street executive as his commerce secretary; he’s also put Lutnick in charge of his tariff and trade agenda, with an additional role overseeing the Office of U.S. Trade Representative.   

American trading partners will eagerly study Lutnick’s views on Trump’s plan to slap a minimum fee of 10 per cent on all imports into the United States.

Lutnick’s public remarks on this issue might reassure them — to a point. In his telling, Trump doesn’t plan to impose tariffs on everything. His message, however, isn’t all sunny.

Few countries have as much riding on these details as Canada. Depending on how the tariffs are designed, there are vastly different estimates about how badly they will hurt Canada’s economy.

WATCH | What’s in store for Canada when it comes to trade under Trump?: 

Canada braces for tariffs, trade disruption with 2nd Trump presidency

9 days ago
Duration 2:02

The federal government is bracing for trade disruption under a second Donald Trump presidency, with former secretary of commerce Wilbur Ross saying Trump will not only focus on tariffs, but target Canada’s supply management sectors during his second term.

What’s the context

According to different estimates, Trump’s tariff plan could cost Canada’s economy anywhere from a half-per cent of GDP to a devastating five per cent.

The level of damage depends on the details. Trump offered scant specifics during the campaign about how exactly his tariff plan would work.

Will tariffs apply to every country? To every product from every country? Or only to specific products where the U.S. has a strategic goal of reshoring jobs?

Lutnick has talked about how he’d apply them. In his view, they would serve two purposes. One is surgical, in order to influence specific industries. The other is as a negotiating club.

The United States has lower tariffs than almost any country, including Canada. Lutnick says this threat will force other countries to sit down with the U.S., and drop their trade barriers.

“Of course it’s a bargaining chip,” the CEO of the financial services giant Cantor Fitzgerald told CNBC during the campaign, during which he led Trump’s transition team.

“Everybody else is going to negotiate with us.” 

During that interview over the summer, he said Trump’s plan was not actually to apply these tariffs willy-nilly, which would drive up the cost of products the U.S. is happy to import.

This would seem to diminish the likelihood of damage to Canada’s No. 1 export to the U.S.: energy, specifically oil, gas and hydropower.

WATCH | Former U.S. commerce official offers advice for Canada:

Trump’s former secretary of commerce shares advice for Canada

9 days ago
Duration 10:34

In an exclusive interview, chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton speaks with Donald Trump’s former secretary of commerce, Wilbur Ross, about the U.S. president-elect’s agenda on trade and tariffs, and his advice for how Canada should respond.

What’s unclear is what it might do to Canada’s No. 2 export: Cars. Lutnick has discussed cars at length, in different interviews, although his comments never mentioned Canada.

He specifically mentioned European and Japanese tariffs and said the U.S. wants a more even playing field, to allow Ford and GM to sell more vehicles there.

In another interview with CNBC, Lutnick called for the U.S. to have similar tariffs to what it faces in Europe and Japan: “Equal, equal, equal.”

He said that if the U.S. threatens major import levies, Europe will panic at the thought of Mercedes, Porsche and BMW losing American sales and then, along with Japan, negotiate a fairer deal.

“And finally Ford and General Motors are going to be able to sell in these places,” Lutnick said.

He was later accused of misrepresenting basic facts about trade in his CNBC interviews. Lutnick had vastly exaggerated the level of tariffs in Europe and Japan and their role in U.S. auto sales.

But Lutnick has taken a more hawkish tone, recently.

In a lengthy podcast discussion last month, Lutnick described tariffs as one of the secrets of U.S. prosperity until the Second World War. 

“You’ve got to tariff the rest of the world. Keep them the heck out. Bring the manufacturing back here,” he said.

One Washington trade expert told CBC News it’s unclear if Lutnick has technical understanding of these issues, and may rely on deputies, including at the Office of U.S. Trade Representative. He said Trump’s announcement might ultimately be inflating Lutnick’s role here.

“Trump’s characterization in his statement may be one of those things we should take seriously but not literally,” said Simon Lester, a former legal-affairs officer at the World Trade Organization.

There’s no guarantee what Trump will do. At this September campaign event, he laid out a more punitive vision than Lutnick’s, threatening tariffs on John Deere for building new production lines in Mexico. (Quinn Glabicki/Reuters)

What’s next

Trump’s major nominees will face confirmation hearings in the U.S. Senate. Lutnick’s will likely happen early next year, where he may elaborate on the next administration’s plans.

The key player here is Trump. There’s no public evidence Trump sees his own plan as primarily a negotiating tool, the way Lutnick described it to CNBC. 

When talking about tariffs, Trump has used more punitive language; he’s threatened to target companies building plants in Mexico, to force them to build in the U.S. — which is an ominous message for countries in North America reliant on their free-trade pact with the U.S.

Trump’s associates were not reassuring, either, in meetings with Canadian officials during the campaign.

Now with the election over, and the new Trump team taking shape, those same Canadian officials, and businesses, will seek additional clarity.

It remains to be seen who else Trump might nominate to economic roles. For example, key trade officials in his first term, Robert Lighthizer and the trade hardliner Peter Navarro, have yet to have roles defined for his second administration.

As for what the U.S. might want from Canada if there’s a negotiation, here’s a handy guide. The U.S. publishes an annual list of gripes with trading partners. The Canada section spans four pages and mentions dairy, provincial liquor boards, broadcast access and taxes on large online platforms.

Trump is also expected to press Canada on military spending, and on how to interpret the automobile provisions of the existing North American trade deal.

Published at Fri, 01 Nov 2024 08:11:21 +0000

Trucks carrying aid into Gaza are being violently ransacked. Here’s what we know

As many of Gaza’s more than 2.3 million people desperately wait for humanitarian assistance and food to reach them, aid trucks are being violently ransacked before getting to their destination, say international organizations.

The ongoing restrictions on what can come in and out of Gaza and the looting of some of the supplies that have made it in have left much of the population with little access to basic items.

In northern Gaza, aid groups have described the situation as “apocalyptic” as intense fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas continues, cutting off the remaining residents from food and services and leaving them vulnerable to airstrikes. 

But in central and southern Gaza, it’s the looting that is disrupting the flow of aid and hiking up prices of food and other essential items.

On Monday, United Nations agencies said 98 of 109 trucks carrying food for Palestinians were looted Saturday in what they described as one of the worst aid losses in the 13-month long war.

The recent food convoy raids have prompted Hamas and its allies to form a new armed group to combat the ambushes. 

While a lot remains unclear about who is carrying out the raids and what is being done to stop them, here’s what we know so far.

How does aid get it into Gaza?

The main way humanitarian aid gets into the Gaza Strip, which borders Israel to the north and east and Egypt to the south, is through five Israeli-controlled border crossings that are open to pre-approved goods or people, according to UN data as of Tuesday.

Each truck is closely inspected by Israeli officials at checkpoints before it is allowed to enter. 

Another method of delivering aid has been through air drops, but that has proven not so viable. Air drops can’t deliver the same amount of aid as trucks, and they leave civilians vulnerable. 

A United Nations employee checks humanitarian aid on a convoy of trucks entering the Gaza Strip from Egypt via the Rafah border crossing on Oct. 21, 2023. A food convoy of 109 trucks was targeted with violent lootings Saturday after entering Gaza through the via an unfamiliar route from Kerem Shalom border crossing, according to UNRWA. (Eyad Baba/ AFP/Getty Images)

Last week, aid packages were dropped from planes west of Khan Younis, where some Palestinians were waiting for hours for it but reported leaving empty-handed after being shot at by locals sheltering in nearby fields trying to secure the aid for themselves.

Ahmed Al-Ghoul was one of the people waiting for the drops. He told CBC News he ran for several kilometres in hopes of retrieving one of the boxes, but he and others were shot at by people sheltering in the fields.

“A child was shot in front of me,” he said.

WATCH | Aid packages dropped by air a dangerous mission for Palestinians, some say:

Search for food in Gaza fraught with danger, Palestinians say

7 days ago

Duration 1:51

The search for food in Gaza has grown more difficult as the Israel-Hamas war drags on, and as the potential for famine sets in, the rush toward aid packages dropped from planes can potentially be lethal. One man told a freelance videographer for CBC News that there are families sheltering in the fields where some drops happen, and if boxes land nearby, they are claimed and those families will shoot anyone who comes near them.

Why does looting happen?

In the most recent looting incident, a food convoy organized by UNRWA and the World Food Program (WFP) was instructed by Israel to depart from the Kerem Shalom border crossing at short notice via an unfamiliar route.

Louise Wateridge, a senior emergency officer with UNRWA, said trucks in that convoy were raided by a group of armed men and some of the drivers were injured.

“This … highlights the severity of access challenges of bringing aid into southern and central Gaza,” she told Reuters Monday.

“⁠The urgency of the crisis cannot be overstated: without immediate intervention, severe food shortages are set to worsen, further endangering the lives of over two million people who depend on humanitarian aid to survive.”

Palestinians gather to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen, amid a hunger crisis as the Israel-Gaza conflict continues, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, Tuesday. (Hatem Khaled/Reuters)

Israel put imports of commercial goods on hold last month, and only aid trucks have entered Gaza since then, carrying a fraction of what relief groups say is needed for a territory where most people have lost their homes and have little money.

The Kissufim crossing in central Gaza was reopened last week to facilitate the flow of aid into the southern part of the Gaza Strip, but aid groups say only an average of 42 trucks a day are being allowed into Gaza.

“It’s getting harder and harder to get the aid in,” said World Health Organization spokesperson Margaret Harris.

Shimon Friedman, a spokesperson for COGAT, disputed that number and said the problem is distribution. There are currently between 700 and 900 aid trucks waiting on the Gazan side of the Kerem Shalom border crossing, he said.

Who’s to blame?

It is unclear exactly how the aid truck ambushes are carried out and whether the people responsible are part of organized groups within Gaza, and Israel and Hamas have put the blame on each other.

Israel accuses Hamas of hijacking aid. The militant group denies that and accuses Israel of trying to foment anarchy in Gaza by targeting police guarding aid convoys, Reuters said.

Trucks pass through as trucks carrying humanitarian aid make their way to the Gaza Strip at the Erez crossing in southern Israel, Oct. 21, 2024. (Janis Laizans/Reuters)

The Washington Post reported earlier this week that an internal UN memo obtained by the newspaper suggests the gangs carrying out the raids are “‘benefiting from a passive if not active benevolence’ or ‘protection'” from the IDF.

Local residents have told the paper that the looters are tied to local crime families who are at odds with Hamas and have branched out from smuggling and other criminal activities to ransacking aid deliveries.

WATCH | Not enough food, aid reaching Gazans: 

Gaza aid groups say not enough food is reaching people in need

1 day ago

Duration 2:20

Aid groups in Gaza say the food crisis is continually getting worse and the limited supplies aren’t getting to those who need them. Israel says there is enough food and few people are going hungry — despite evidence to the contrary.

In a statement Monday, Gaza’s Interior Ministry said the organized groups are active in areas controlled by Israel, accusing the IDF of providing “full support” and alleging that the criminal groups have established “warehouses” near Israeli forces, specifically east of Rafah.

The ministry said the criminal groups also impose royalties on merchants who had been allowed to bring goods in, resulting in a “huge rise” in prices for some necessities. Before the war, a sack of flour sold for $10 US or $15 and a kilogram of milk powder for $11. Now, the flour costs $100 and the milk powder more than $110, traders told Reuters.

CBC News reached out to the IDF and COGAT (Co-ordination of Government Activities in the Territories), which oversees the movement of goods into the Gaza Strip, Tuesday morning but did not get a response.

What are aid groups saying?

A WFP spokesperson confirmed the Saturday incident and said that many routes in Gaza were currently impassable due to security issues posed by the ongoing fighting between Hamas and the IDF.

Janti Soeripto, CEO of Save the Children U.S., says given the severely damaged or destroyed infrastructure in Gaza, food and aid distribution becomes increasingly difficult to control for organizations. 

Soeripto says a big driving force in the recent spate of looting is the sheer lack of food and supplies.

“There is such scarcity and desperation that we should not be surprised that once supplies do come in once every so often, that there is then a higher risk of looting. That is created by the scarcity in and of itself,” she told CBC News last week.

A truck carries humanitarian aid destined for the Gaza Strip, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, at the Kerem Shalom crossing in southern Israel, Nov. 11, 2024. (Amir Cohen/Reuters)

Soeripto said the the only way to combat that scarcity and allow aid to be distributed safely is to pause the fighting. 

“Children are starving, [they] are dying from completely preventable causes, essentially massive casualties … and it is essentially man made,” she said.

“If you flood the Gaza Strip with aid in the way that we’ve said … for months — clean water, food, shelter, basic items — that risk will come down substantively.”

What is Hamas doing about the looting?

Hamas’s response to the looting has been to form a force made up of its own fighters and allied groups tasked with preventing gangs from pillaging the aid convoys, residents and sources close to the militant group told Reuters.

Since it was created earlier this month amid rising public anger at aid seizures and price gouging, the new force has ambushed looters and killed a number of them in armed clashes, the sources said.

Trucks carrying aid line up near the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip on Saturday. (Stringer/Reuters)

Those charged with protecting the aid are reportedly ready to open fire on any looters who do not surrender immediately, one of the sources, a Hamas government official, told Reuters.

The official, who declined to be named because Hamas would not authorize him to speak about the situation, said the Hamas force has been operating across central and southern Gaza and had carried out at least 15 missions so far, including the killing of some “armed gangsters.”

What do Gazans want to happen?

Some people in Gaza say they want Hamas to target looters.

“There is a campaign against thieves, we see that,” Shaban, a displaced Gaza City engineer, now living in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, told Reuters.

“If the campaign continues and aid flows, the prices will go down because the stolen aid appears in the markets at high cost.”

Diyaa Al-Nasara, who spoke to Reuters as a funeral took place for a Hamas fighter killed in clashes with looters, said most people support the crackdown.

“We are all against the bandits and looters so we can live and eat,” Al-Nasara said. “Now, you are obliged to buy from a thief.”

WATCH | Gazans tired of long bread lines, high food prices: 

Flour shortage, bakery closures exacerbate already dire food situation in Gaza

1 day ago

Duration 0:42

Dozens stood outside the only operating bakery in Khan Younis in central Gaza Monday morning in hopes of getting their hands on bread to feed their families. Palestinians say despite waiting daily for hours, they are often leaving empty-handed amid a flour shortage and bakery closures that have exacerbated an already dire food situation in the besieged enclave.

Hamas’s efforts to take the lead in securing aid supplies point to the difficulties Israel will face in a post-war Gaza, with few obvious alternatives to a group it has been trying to destroy for more than a year and which it says can have no governing role.

“Hamas as a movement exists, whether someone likes it or not,” the Hamas official told Reuters. “Hamas as a government exists, too, not as strong as it used to be, but it exists and its personnel are trying to serve the people everywhere in the areas of displacement.” 

But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated Tuesday that Hamas would not rule Gaza after the war. During a visit with his defence minister in central Gaza, Netanyahu alleged that Israel had destroyed the Islamist group’s military capabilities.

He also offered a $5 million reward to anyone who brought one of the Israeli hostages who remain captive inside Gaza to the IDF.

LISTEN | UN Special Rapporteur on latest in Gaza: 

Front Burner43:14UN Palestinian rapporteur Francesca Albanese

Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, recently returned from a week-long trip to Canada. She was given standing ovations at sold-out speaking events, yet also faced backlash from groups who called for the Canadian government to condemn her, and advocated for the UN to remove her from her position.
Today, a wide-ranging conversation with Francesca Albanese.
For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Published at Tue, 19 Nov 2024 23:40:13 +0000

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