Donald Trump seems to be getting the trade war that he so obviously wants. Canada resisted being drawn into that kind of destructive cycle for as long as it could, but Trump’s decision to slap tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum backed this country into a corner.

Invoking “national security” as the ostensible reason for the measure only adds insult to injury. The tariffs are also being imposed on imports from the European Union and Mexico, so the Trump administration has decided to go to economic war with its closest allies and trade partners.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was right to strike a harsher tone in reacting to this pointless, punitive step. He has gone out of his way to make nice with Trump, even when the U.S. administration first waved around the threat of tariffs back in March. But at some point a line must be drawn in the face of measures that Trudeau called “totally unacceptable.”

The national security excuse for the tariffs is transparently thin.

It is, on the face of it, absurd to invoke such a reason in relation to the United States’ closest economic partner, especially when the two countries’ metal industries are intricately intertwined. As Trudeau noted on Thursday, Canadian steel and aluminum are built into U.S. fighter jets. The idea that depending on Canada for metals is a threat to American security is farcical.

More to the point, the Trump administration is openly linking the new tariffs to what it sees as Canadian and Mexican foot-dragging on talks to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). A week ago Trump was grumbling that Canada is “very spoiled” and “very difficult to deal with” on trade, and his commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, publicly cited the slow NAFTA talks as the reason for slapping on the tariffs.

That makes it clear that all this has zero to do with national security and everything to do with the Trump administration leaning on the United States’ traditional allies to get its way on bigger trade issues.

The response to that has to be: get lost. Canada resisted rising to the bait when the tariff threat was first invoked, and managed to kick the can down the road. But now that the measures are real, the Trudeau government can hardly avoid replying with dollar-for-dollar tariffs of its own on an array of American goods.

It’s a self-destructive cycle that will hurt businesses and consumers on both sides of the border. But failing to respond would send out a message of weakness, and faced with a bully like Trump that will just invite more attacks.

At this point it’s clear that the Trump administration has made a remarkable hash of the NAFTA talks. It has presented Canada and Mexico with a series of unacceptable demands that served only to stiffen spines in both countries.

And the window for a successful renegotiation is closing quickly, with a presidential election fast approaching in Mexico and politicking in advance of U.S. midterm elections complicating matters in Washington. The Wall Street Journal describes it all as a “looming fiasco” that could backfire on the president by alienating groups that should be his allies, like businesses and farmers who depend heavily on trade.

Ultimately some sort of trade deal may well be salvaged. In the space of a few days, remember, Trump whip-sawed from cancelling his Korean summit with Kim Jong Un back to planning the very same meeting. Who knows what reversals may be coming on NAFTA?

But even if that happens, his erratic, hostile behaviour toward the United States’ traditional allies is undermining Washington’s credibility around the world. On that front, the damage has already been done.

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