Drug wars

The United States are attacking their neighbours and allies to the north and to the south with costly tariffs on their exports. This hits especially hard because the US is by far the two nations' main trading partner.

Donald Trump has at various times offered different justifications for the punitive tariffs:

Let's look at the last point. Canada and Mexico are accused of not doing enough to control the flow of drugs, especially fentanyl, into the US. Both countries have managed to persuade the US government to delay the tariffs by committing thousands of troops to the borders [1] in an effort to stem the drug trade.

Fentanyl is a product of the American pharmaceutical industry,first synthesized in 1959. It is a powerful but also dangerous painkiller and sedative, and it is still widely used medically today. It is also an ideal product for the illegal drug trade: it's easy to synthesize, a single dose is just a few milligrams, and it is extremely addictive. Because it is so potent, it leads easily to overdosing, particularly when the dose is not controlled or when it is mixed with other drugs, as is of course the case when you're getting a drug in an unregulated black market.

Fentanyl has caused a drug crisis in the United States, and it has spread around the world causing similar distress.

The opioid crisis in the United States

The route that leads to the finished fentanyl entering the United States is long and tortuous. A lot of the precursors are first produced in small shops in China, which then find their way to labs in Mexico where they are processed into the finished fentanyl, which is then smuggled in pills to the US and sold at a high markup. This has created some powerful and violent crime gangs particularly in Mexico. Politics also affects the process, as the government of China looks the other way in proportion to American threats. When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August of 2022 and expressed “unwavering commitment to supporting Taiwan's vibrant democracy”, and we all know what that means, Beijing responded by suspending anti-drug-trafficking cooperation with Washington.

One would imagine that since fentanyl is a product of the American pharmaceutical industry and its trafficking is motivated by a high demand for it in the United States, that the US government would cooperate with efforts to shut down the illegal trade. Especially since drug trafficking has created a wave of crime and generalized violence particularly in Mexico, and to a lesser degree in Canada. Instead the US government wants its neighbours to bear the full cost of tackling a problem they didn't start, forcing them to acquiesce with trade sanctions that damage their economies. Ultimately it's working people in Canada and Mexico, as well as in the US [2] that pay the price, who are not the ones who created the problem in the first place.
#Canada #Trump

[1] Actually the troops were already committed before, during the Biden administration. Canada and Mexico have simply told Trump about it, as if it was something new. But the fact remains that those troops would not have had to be deployed if it weren't for the drug trafficking.

[2] As many pointed out immediately after Trump announced the tariffs, it is Americans that actually pay them.