Peter Coy, Columnist

Global Trade Has a Trump Problem

The U.S. president likes high-profile summits more than the quotidian work of maintaining alliances. That’s eroding trust, trade, and global security.

June 14, 2018 at 9:00 AM UTC

By Peter Coy

Peter Coy is the economics editor for Bloomberg Businessweek and covers a wide range of economic issues. He also holds the position of senior writer. Coy joined the magazine in December 1989 as telecommunications editor, then became technology editor in October 1992 and held that position until joining the economics staff. He came to BusinessWeek from the Associated Press in New York, where he had served as a business news writer since 1985. Before that, Coy worked as a correspondent in the AP Rochester bureau. He began his career at the AP in 1980 as an editor in the Albany bureau. Prior to that, Coy was a reporter for the Waterbury (Conn.) Republican. Coy holds a BA in history from Cornell University.

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This article is part of the June 18, 2018 issue of businessweek.

Away from the cameras at the Group of Seven summit in Charlevoix, Quebec, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was groping for ways to explain to U.S. President Donald Trump that trading with Canada is not a threat to U.S. national security. According to a Canadian official who spoke with the Toronto Star, Trudeau brought up the air base at Bagotville where Air Force One had landed. Trudeau told Trump, “Why is Bagotville there? Bagotville is there to protect aluminum smelters that were building American warplanes in the Second World War.”

Trudeau’s message clearly didn’t stick. Trump continued his pattern of being friendlier with America’s enemies than with its friends. He called Trudeau weak and dishonest on his way from Canada to a convivial meeting with the brutal North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.