Trump Tariffs:
What’s Signal and What’s Noise
Carlo Dade
January 2025
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Trump’s ‘we-have-no-idea-how-much’ across the board tariffs are either the biggest economic disaster to befall Canada, the opening salvo in a re-imagination of Canada-U.S. relations since the war of 1812 (which we won, by the way) or just a New Yorker’s negotiating stunt. And after the first day in office we still don’t know, which isn’t surprising from a president who weaponizes uncertainty. How do we separate the signal from the noise coming from a very noisy source? Well, Mr. Trump, you have our attention – so Now What?
The following What Now? policy brief is an edited and expanded annotation of a conversation between Carlo Dade, Director of the Canada West Foundation’s Trade and Trade Infrastructure Centre, and Matt Galloway, host of CBC’s The Current that was originally broadcast on January 9, 2025. The annotated and expanded answers include content from CWF interviews with Andrew Chang for CBC’s About That show. We thank the Current and CBC News for the questions that framed this policy brief.
Read the What Now
Carlo Dade is Director of Trade and Trade Infrastructure at the Canada West Foundation.
Further reading
- Tariffs on Canada are a betrayal of the America First movement’s promise to U.S. workers – Carlo Dade, Jan. 20, 2025
- Canada still woefully unprepared for a trade war with the U.S. – Carlo Dade, Jan. 20, 2025
- North America Brief 22 | Trump’s tweet, Canada’s response plus Project 2025 deep dive – Carlo Dade, Dec. 2024
- North America Brief 21 | The Trump global tariff threat – Carlo Dade, Oct. 2024
- Canada-first response to Donald Trump – Perrin Beatty, Gary Mar, Carlo Dade, et.al, Jan. 2025