特朗普关税冲击美加贸易，Gordie Howe大桥成双边关系破裂象征

Westin: This is a story about what could have been and what could be once again. Bridges connect places and people. The Ambassador Bridge has joined Windsor, Ontario, with Detroit, Michigan, since the 1920s, long representing the close ties between two great economies. A new and improved version of the bridge was meant to draw those economies even closer. But instead, it has become a symbol of differences and disputes, of connections once strong that are now fraying or broken.

After 25 years of planning and 8 years of construction, the Gordie Howe Bridge opened to traffic in July. -This achievement, having one of the most fluid and secure high volume border crossings in the world, is a testament to the longstanding partnership between Canada, the United States, and the state of Michigan. Westin: There's just one problem. The opening ceremony for the bridge that connects Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Ontario, was at first delayed and ultimately attended only by Canadian officials, the result of President Trump's displeasure with the bridge and even more with the economic relations between the two countries. -I mean, in all fairness to them, they need us to survive. -I don't believe in escalating the conflict.

That's not constructive. But our tariffs are necessary to protect our workers, protect our companies and our communities. We can't let American goods into Canada tariff-free while they charge our companies to export them. Westin: The new bridge over the Detroit River is named for Gordie Howe, known as Mr. Hockey, the man from Saskatoon, Canada, who spent much of his career on the other side of the border as the star of the Detroit Red Wings. -Gordie Howe was probably the greatest hockey player of his day, and some say of all time.

Westin: The bridge's namesake was for Canadians and Americans a man who symbolized both countries and cultures, and the things they had in common. Roy MacSkimming is the author of "Gordie, a Hockey Legend." -He won 6 league scoring championships. He was named most valuable player 6 times. He led the Detroit Red Wings to 4 Stanley Cups in a row. And he had an incredibly long-lasting career. He retired twice and did not retire permanently until he was 52 and a grandfather.

Westin: Gordie Howe became someone both Canadians and Americans claimed as one of their own. So it made sense when the new bridge was named for him in 2015 to reflect the joint commitment of both countries to their relationship in trade, in business and in much more. -Canada and the U.S. are tightly linked in terms of trade, have been now for decades. And so a huge amount of business investment has been made that ties those two economies together.

Westin: Michael Belzer is a visiting professor at Cornell University, and Professor Emeritus at Wayne State University. -Just like two economies, like two states would be tied together, Canada has been tied that closely together to the United States for auto industry now for over 60 years. So this is nothing new. This has been here. It's built and baked into the cake at this point. There's no turning back on that. Westin: A lot has changed in the nearly 100 years since the predecessor bridge, the Ambassador, became the first bridge to span the Detroit River. -Built for a different time, different types of vehicles, different amount of trade, different amount of travel back and forth.

Really, it's an old bridge. It's been updated in some respects, but it still is very steep, and it's slow, and it effectively for trucks is really a one-lane bridge. Westin: One of the most important things that made the Ambassador Bridge obsolete was the enormous growth in trade crossing between Windsor and Detroit. Canada is the second largest trading partner for the U.S. after Mexico. Last year, the U.S. exported nearly $334 billion of goods to its northern neighbor, and imported $382 billion worth.

And roughly a quarter of those goods went across the Detroit River, traveling on trucks like those of Onfreight Logistics, founded and led by Steve Ondejko. -85% of our business crosses the Windsor-Detroit Bridge to go to and from the central states of the U.S. and Canada, Ontario specifically. Westin: Ondejko's trucks were the first commercial vehicles to go over the Gordie Howe Bridge. -We assisted the Gordie Howe Bridge in testing.

They were testing their equipment, their technology and the movement of flow of trucks on the bridge. So we participated highly with them to do that and be successful to do that. It was disappointing for everybody when the Gordie Howe Bridge was... President Trump decided it wasn't going to open until he said it was going to open. WESTIN: Just as Gordie Howe grew up in Canada and became a hockey legend playing in the U.S., Ondejko's Onfreight Logistics has strong roots in both countries. -So Onfreight Logistics is a combination of companies, primarily our trucking operation that does international traffic between the U.S. and Canada.

We're transporting over 100 loads per day to and from and across the border. Our operation has 250 employees within the trucking operation and another 50 employees within our warehousing and packaging operations. That has been stable for a number of years and we're actually on a growth pattern now in the last 6 months. Westin: Robust trade has long been at the core of economic relations between the U.S. and Canada. Going back to before NAFTA. -Canada and the U.S., like any two countries, have had at least a small number of barriers protecting certain industries.

So the integration of the two economies is very thorough and it starts actually 60 years ago, an agreement that established the foundations for this relative to the auto industry. They have then extended with NAFTA and then Trump didn't like NAFTA, so he negotiated the USMCA. But that's a treaty and we've now broken the treaty. -Why should we carry Canada? Why should we carry Mexico? Westin: But recently, President Trump's rhetoric and policies have put in question the future of trade relations.

He has made manufacturing the keystone of his trade efforts. For its part, Canada has sought to protect its dairy industry. Dairy that exceeds Canada's quotas is subject to a two to 300 percent levy, making it prohibitively expensive for foreign producers. After initially announcing 50 percent tariffs on Canadian imports, in August, President Trump held off, saying the two countries had reached a deal. That deal never materialized, leading the U.S. tariffs to go forward and Prime Minister Carney to levy his own tariffs against the U.S. -Now what we've seen is this 50 percent tariff on everything.

Well, what's the purpose of that? Well, it's a whim. And so government by whim is not a modern and responsible business-like way to do trade. All of these things are going to cost us an enormous amount of money. I can't tell you how much the change in GDP will be, but it's a lot. Westin: And it's not just overall GDP growth that may be hurt by the back and forth over U.S.-Canada trade. It's businesses like Onfreight Logistics trying to make investment decisions. -This not knowing changing every 6 months, every 3 months is just unleveling and it's unnerving.

We're investing millions of dollars in equipment. I've got millions of dollars equipment coming in the next 6 to 12 months. And it's kind of unnerving that this is going on. And how is this going to affect the flow of goods and the flow of international trade? Westin: Paying a price for all that uncertainty may be worth it when the ultimate result will bring real benefits for one economy or the other. But economists like Belzer say that even when the dust eventually settles, there are still real questions about whether tariffs do more harm than good. -In the case of U.S. and Canada specifically, when economies are roughly in the same league with each other, there's really no benefit in maintaining tariffs between the two of them.

Tariffs are significant when you