TOI correspondent from Washington: Canada has survived another Trump tariff deadline. Hours before a 50% tariff on roughly $20 billion of Canadian goods was supposed to take effect, the MAGA supremo announced a three-day reprieve, declaring on Truth Social that the United States and Canada had a “DEAL!” — subject, naturally, to the small matter of actually concluding an agreement.Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney was considerably less Trumpian about the breakthrough, acknowledging “substantial progress” but maintaining important work remained. In other words: Claims of a trade deal, as in the case between US and India, are premature.The timing was particularly delicious with Tuesday’s postponement immediately reviving the internet’s favorite Trump tariff acronym: TACO — “Trump Always Chickens Out.” The phrase, coined during the earlier tariff battles, has become shorthand for Trump’s habit of threatening economic and military Armageddon and then discovering, usually just before the deadline, the joys of negotiation. By Tuesday night, social media was trumpeting another TACO Tuesday — with Canada apparently supplying the salsa.Yet beneath the jokes lies a serious $900-billion-plus economic relationship that neither side can afford to blow up. The immediate quarrel is over what Washington calls discriminatory Canadian trade practices, with the Trump administration complaining about Canadian restrictions on American dairy, alcohol, and vehicles, including provincial bans on US liquor. Canada, meanwhile, has resisted demands that it open its markets on American terms and has used its own tariffs and boycotts as leverage. Ties between the two neighbors have never been worse.Trump’s latest tariff threat was unusually broad. The proposed 50% duties would hit products ranging from hockey sticks and electronics to plastics and building materials, including some goods that previously enjoyed protection under the US-Mexico-Canada trade framework. The threatened tariffs would cover only about 5% of Canada’s exports to the US, but their political and psychological effect would be considerably larger.So what might a deal look like? Trump has suggested three broad ingredients: greater Canadian market access for American products, commitments on economic security and cooperation on digital trade. US Trade Rep Jamieson Greer has indicated that those issues are central to the emerging agreement. Trump has also dangled an unexpected sweetener – resurrecting the long-dead Keystone XL pipeline, which he says “may be awoken from the grave.“The harder question is automobiles. Washington wants tariff relief for Canadian vehicles tied more closely to American-made components. Ottawa prefers broader North American rules that count Mexican and Canadian content as well — precisely the sort of boondoggle that can turn a three-day deadline into a three-month negotiation.So for now, Trump has not exactly abandoned the tariff weapon; he has merely holstered it for 72 hours. That leaves Carney and Trump with until Friday to turn a TACO Tuesday into a fitting Friday — before the tacos get cold and the tariffs come back on the menu.
