US ban on $1 billion worth of Canadian liquor, dairy, and grocery

There was always something a little funny about the “free trade” agreement with Canada. We send them real goods, and they send back a pile of tariffs and quotas. So when President Trump finally put a $1 billion ban on Canadian liquor, dairy, and groceries, the response from Ottawa was a familiar one: hurt feelings. But this isn’t about hurting feelings. It’s about a country that has spent decades protecting its cartels while lecturing us about being good neighbors.

Canada doesn’t have a free market in dairy. It has supply management, which is a polite word for a wall around the Canadian grocery shelf. Quotas set by the government. Prices fixed by the government. American farmers don’t get in unless the Canadians say so. Trump looked at that and decided the game was over. The ban covers booze and dairy and even motorcycles because those are industries where Canada has been playing gatekeeper. This is leverage, and it’s aimed exactly where it hurts.

The usual crowd will call this a trade war with an ally. But it takes two sides to make a war, and Canada’s protectionism has been the opening shot for years. Trump was elected to push back, not to keep the peace at the expense of American workers. Let Canada feel some of its own medicine. It’s the only language that gets through in a trade relationship where we’ve been the patient partner and they’ve been the protectionist next door. If the ban costs Canadian producers a billion dollars, maybe they’ll finally want a fair deal instead of a one-sided one.