By: G. Ray Gompf, CD
There is considerable economic chaos throughout the world these days and pretty much everyone worldwide is blaming Donald J. Trump, President of the United States for this chaos. What we have to remember that, here in Canada, we have no say in how Mr. Trump acts, either to our detriment or to our advantage; we have no choice but to accept whatever happens south of our border.
That being said, Mr. Trump is being accused of affecting our Canadian trucking industry, which isn’t his issue. There’s been a law on U.S. books for decades that requires commercial truck drivers to be competent and proficient in the use of the English language. What Mr. Trump has done is require U.S. authorities to enforce a law that’s older than most people in the industry.
In Canada, we have two official languages, one of which is common with the U.S. and in Mexico. The U.S. being the big dog, Mexico being the tail of the dog and Canada being the small claw on the left paw of that dog has little choice but to comply with any and all laws within the United States. It only makes sense for those legally operating within the U.S. be able to speak, read and comprehend English while operating within the borders of the U.S.
As foreigners within the U.S., it is up to us to comply with their laws. Whether Mr. Trump is being unreasonable shouldn’t even be a consideration. It’s simply not even in our purview to be either supportive or not with his assertions. Our choice is no choice other than comply. For this language issue to even be noteworthy isn’t our problem. When in the United States, we as foreigners must communicate in English with competence. No if, buts or maybes.
The tariff war, which is a large part of Mr. Trump’s “chaos” only effects our operations as truckers. It really affecting us other than the ability for loads to cross the border ensuring tariffs are paid if effective. But that could have considerable effect on whether or not we have a load to haul. Our stock and trade, as truckers, are the ability provide the miles to move freight from point A to point B. The paperwork and the payment of tariffs are somebody else’s job. Mr. Trump, other than the English issue, is not affecting our stock and trade.
Now, Mr. Carney, Prime Minister of Canada, has much more effect on Canadian truck drivers operating in North America than Mr. Trump. Canadian truckers must comply with all Canadian laws which are not always the same as laws south of the border.
Canadian truck drivers, because they are much more likely to cross a border to go south, than U.S. drivers are heading north. Canadian drivers have little choice but to be involved in cross border operations because Canada is a trading nation and while our area is huge, our population is small. And no, Mr. Carney, we cannot be our own best customer; we must continue to be a trader of not just our wealth of resources, but we must be a seller and exporter of manufactured products.
The fact that Canada has decided to limit imports of agricultural products into Canada to protect Canadian farmers is logical. Canada has a decades old practice of tariffing agriculture commodities after agreed upon limits have been reached. It’s not unreasonable as some have suggested. The tariff war will continue until it doesn’t.
Frankly, Mr. Trump’s tariffs have at least bought the attention of the world to worldwide trade and that may not, in the end, be such a terrible thing. It’s forcing negotiations that might otherwise not happen. It’s bringing the attention of the world, the worth of our trade partners, and what we can supply those partners and what they can supply us to limelight. It won’t ever return to status quo, but it will sort out which countries will be allies and which ones won’t, and it may very well be that nothing changes. This shake up was necessary to bring up the evil corruption that has permeated governments and big business.
