Will Canada escape the potentially economy-smashing tariffs threatened by Donald Trump? If you can’t answer that question, congratulations, you’re in good company.
It’s the multibillion-dollar enigma on the minds of some of the best-connected people in North America’s capitals.
Trump has threatened a 25 per cent tariff on every product entering from Canada and Mexico — unless those countries make as-yet-undefined changes at their borders to slow the flow of migrants and fentanyl.
There’s a widespread belief that Trump wants to extract concessions that will get his presidency off to a strong start.
What’s unclear: What numbers, or targets, or actions, would satisfy him and avoid a likely recession and trade war.
Even people who know Trump, and trade, and Canada, confess to their own befuddlement, from people who worked in Trump’s first White House to others advising the Canadian government.
“The challenge is that Canada doesn’t have a clear sense of what does Team …