Late last week United States President Donald Trump announced new steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada for “national security” reasons. They also announced a series of similar trade attacks on Mexico and Europe.

Canada retaliated with new tariffs of their own on a variety of U.S. manufactured goods. Mexico also followed the U.S. announcement with similar responses.

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The Trump administration has launched an all-out global trade war with the Western World. They have decided – for reasons still unknown to many smart people – that it is in their best political interests to create economic uncertainty and chaos six months before the midterm elections.

As in any war, the result will see losses on both sides. This is expected to be just the beginning of the trade chaos as we near the conclusion of NAFTA negotiations – for better or worse.

The Canadian response by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was balanced and measured. “Americans remain our partners, friends, and allies. This is not about the American people. We have to believe that at some point their common sense will prevail,” said Trudeau. “But we see no sign of that in this action today by the U.S. administration.”

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The PM said that the countermeasures will only apply to goods originating from the U.S. and will remain in place until the U.S. eliminates its trade-restrictive measures against Canada.

Canada will also challenge these illegal and counterproductive measures under NAFTA Chapter 20 and at the World Trade Organization. It is simply ridiculous to view any trade with Canada as a national security threat to the U.S. and we will continue to stand up for Canadian workers and Canadian businesses.

The Conservative opposition have decided to make this a partisan issue. Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer said “Justin Trudeau promised workers in Quebec, Ontario, and Saskatchewan that he had resolved this issue. The Canadian steel and aluminum industry is now facing massive new tariffs. It is clear that the Prime Minister failed.”

Now is not the time for the Conservatives to break ranks and go on a partisan attack. Trump would be attacking Canada and NAFTA regardless of who the PM is and who was in power.

Trump’s tactics are to create chaos and uncertainty. Scheer and his Tory colleagues are only adding fuel to the fire.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s attacks on Mexico and his threat to leave NAFTA have created a political environment of upheaval for Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto as his country heads towards its July 1 presidential election.

The likely victory of a left-wing extremist as Mexican president, opposing Trump, could destabilize the entire North American continent. Mexican leftist Andrés Manuel López Obrador is poised to win the election and holds a commanding lead in the polls.

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The political uncertainty in Mexico creates opportunity for Trump to get what he wants and creates barriers to find solutions.

We cannot have the same political situation develop here in Canada. Our opposition parties should stand united behind our Prime Minister in the trade war.

If the PM fails – then Canadians will vote him out of office. Voters won’t need Tory partisan attacks to convince them of that.

The best way forward in the coming trade war is a unified bi-partisan effort to convince American leaders to find a compromise. A chirping partisan opposition leader does nothing to help solve the problem and I believe Canadians will judge him accordingly.

Jim Warren is a Liberal strategist who has worked for Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman.