A Zero-sum Game Is Not Part Of The Canadian Psyche

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau talks to Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait about trade, Trump, housing bubbles, and marijuana

- John Micklethwait

John Micklethwait: On April 18, Donald Trump went to Wisconsin and promised he would protect the dairy farmers against unfair trade. And he cited Canada in particular. And he also said for good measure, “We’re going to get rid of Nafta once and for all.”

Justin Trudeau: One of the challenges that we’ve seen in the rise of populist or nationalist politics around the world over the past years is a reflection that trade hasn’t always been great for everyone. Sometimes it has benefited only the top tier of any economy, certain multinationals, not smaller businesses. The issue, however, is if you end up going down a highly protectionistic route, if you end up creating barriers and tariff walls, you end up slowing down economic growth, and everyone ends up suffering, including and especially the middle class.

But in this particular case, he was trying to get rid of the milk subsidies that you give to Canadian dairy producers.

I understand that certain politicians are speaking to certain constituencies, that it’s politics. At the same time, the U.S. has a $400 million dairy surplus with Canada. So it’s not Canada that is the challenge here. And the way we approach our very constructive relationship with the United States on trade and on other things is to base it around the facts of the issues and a shared desire to see citizens on both of our sides of the border succeed. We know that trade, Nafta, the free and open trade between Canada and the U.S. creates millions of good jobs on both sides of the border. So we’re not going to overreact.

Every Canadian family pays several hundred dollars more in their annual milk bill because of the measures you have to support your dairy industry. Surely as a protector of the middle class, on this one thing you would admit that Donald Trump has a point.