This article originally appeared in the Washington Examiner.
By Anthony De Luca-Baratta, September 2, 2026
After trade talks between Canada and the United States broke down in August, the Trump administration announced 50% tariffs on $20 billion of Canadian imports. This latest round of tariffs is a serious strategic mistake, not to mention an economic one.
Countries like Canada increasingly perceive the U.S as an erratic and unreliable partner, presenting a golden opportunity for China to fill the gap and increase its footprint in the Western Hemisphere. The latest tariffs also jeopardize the creation of an allied critical minerals trade block, one of the administration’s key strategic objectives. Though President Donald Trump may not believe that the U.S. “needs” Canada, his mistreatment of America’s northern neighbor is undermining his stated priorities.
Earlier this year, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a “strategic partnership” between Canada and China, as Ottawa sought to diversify its trade away from an increasingly hostile U.S. The latest round of tariffs will only push the two countries closer together.
Latin American countries have also begun to drift toward China. After the administration threatened 50% tariffs on Brazil in July 2025, its president called Chinese President Xi Jinping to coordinate a response. Last month, Brasilia announced a $444.2 million investment in artificial intelligence, splitting contracts between American and Chinese firms to balance ties between the superpowers. Meanwhile, Colombia has joined China’s Belt and Road Initiative, deepening infrastructure and investment cooperation with Beijing.
These latest moves bolster what was already a growing Chinese presence in the Western Hemisphere. In the summer of 2025, Chinese firms controlled 37 ports in Latin America, which analysts warn could be used to collect intelligence or to deny port access to U.S. or allied shipping. China has also begun to establish a footprint in the Arctic through investments in energy infrastructure and outright military incursions by sea and by air.
All of this should alarm Washington, whose policy is to deny hostile foreign powers such as China a significant footprint in the Western Hemisphere, and for good reason. As China has grown in wealth and power, it has sought to undermine American businesses and elections. It has also threatened to forcibly annex Taiwan, giving Beijing the power to cripple the American economy by cutting off access to advanced microchips.
Growing Chinese influence in Canada, Latin America, and the broader Arctic region is thus a direct threat to Americans’ security and prosperity. Securing control of Arctic sea routes and energy reserves would lessen China’s dependence on U.S.-influenced maritime chokepoints for energy imports, a key source of leverage for the U.S., especially in a future conflict. Increasing sway over Latin American infrastructure gives Beijing the ability to disrupt key regional supply chains, and may even allow it to directly threaten the American homeland. Given these dangers, Washington is right to want to deny hostile powers such as China a foothold in its backyard. Unnecessary and punitive tariffs on countries like Canada only undermine this goal.
On some level, the administration knows this. In a telling exception to its protectionist trade policies, it has explicitly sought to establish an allied trade block for critical minerals. Given Chinese market dominance in this area, the U.S. is currently at the mercy of Beijing for essential inputs across a variety of strategic industries, from battery manufacturing to defense.
Washington will need all the help it can get from resource-rich partners such as Canada to break this stranglehold, but the tariffs are now endangering this prospect as well. During the recent round of U.S.-Canada trade talks, the Trump administration reportedly added an eleventh-hour demand that would have given Washington the right to bar Canadian critical minerals exports to third countries, effectively ending Canadian sovereignty over some of its most valuable resources.
Poisoning the well on these critical inputs is a massive threat to American national security. Canada is rich in many defense-critical minerals for which the U.S. is currently entirely dependent on China. Ottawa would jump at the opportunity to export them to willing partners and allies, and the U.S. simply cannot afford to pass up such opportunities. The administration has scored a spectacular own goal by jeopardizing the prospect of cooperation with Canada.
Meanwhile, American businesses continue to suffer. Though the protectionist-Right insists that tariffs boost local production, the evidence points in the opposite direction. Several studies found that Trump’s 2018-19 tariffs caused a decrease in American manufacturing employment because they raised the price of inputs on which American industry depends. Over two-thirds of imports from Canada are inputs, not finished products.
The new tariffs on Canada thus undermine the administration’s national security objectives for no economic gain whatsoever. In all respects, they are a losing proposition for the people.
Anthony De Luca-Baratta is a contributor to the Center for North American Prosperity and Security, a project of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.
