Should you book that trip to the U.S.? Philosophy prof breaks down ethics of retaliating against Trump tariffs

Since U.S. President Donald Trump made it clear he was serious about levying tariffs against Canadian goods, a movement to boycott U.S. travel and products has taken hold.

But not all Canadians are convinced that's the way to go: some argue that the people of the United States should not be punished for what their government is doing, and others don't want American politics dictating how they spend their money and vacations. 

Peter Dietsch, a philosopher and economist, said it's a double-edged sword.

"Our hope is when we disengage, we're signalling to not just our fellow Canadians, but especially to Americans: 'Hey, this is not normal. We need to change something here,'" he said.

But the consequences of our own actions are a gamble, he said. 

"How are the average Americans … going to react to that?"

Dietsch spoke in depth about this with CBC's Stephen Quinn on The Early Edition.

The Early Edition9:43The ethics of dealing with the U.S. trade war

The trade war with the U.S. has caused many Canadians to rethink their vacations and shopping habits. University of Victoria philosophy professor Peter Dietsch shares how an ethicist would approach this dilemma.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

Some people are saying, 'I don't want to be spending my money in the United States,' while some say it's really not the people of the United States that we're worried about, it's the policies of the U.S. government. How do we make the distinction?

It depends how we frame the situation that we're faced with.

I think the optimistic framing of this, believe it or not, is that we are faced with a trade war. The question is: what should I do as an individual in that trade war? If you frame it in those terms and you also think that we should do what achieves the right consequences in this context, and we could say that those are promoting better relations with the United States, you might think that, yes, we do have an obligation to show solidarity with Canadians in this context. Why? Well, because we want to signal to the Trump administration, via the population of the United States, that we want to move toward a world, again, where there are no tariffs imposed and a more co-operative world as we knew it before. If we frame it in that way, we have an obligation to maybe not travel to the United States, buy fewer American goods and so on. And if we don't do that in a way, we're free riding on the efforts of our fellow Canadians who are doing that.

The more pessimistic reading is that this is not just a trade war, but we're faced with, unfortunately, the rise of an authoritarian regime. So the Trump administration is trampling over individual rights in the United States, it's dismantling institutions that are supposed to act as checks and balances in democracy, such as the courts, such as the media. If you frame it in those terms, then that raises the stakes. I think then that makes the obligation to disengage even stronger, because looking back, if we don't, we might individually and collectively think that we were on the wrong side of history on this one.

We're also in a situation where we have a trade agreement with the United States and Mexico that is still in effect, that was signed by the current president of the United States, and that agreement is not being honoured. What can or should we do about that?

That's the thing when we're faced with the situation where institutions get dismantled; it creates uncertainty. Uncertainty is bad for many things, but it's especially bad for trade. And so again, you could think of these two framings. Is the whole trade kerfuffle, is that just a distraction from what's really going on? 

We can't rely on agreements anymore. Even from day to day. Politicians learned very quickly that the Trump administration says one day, 'We're going to take the tariffs away,' and the next day they might be back, and the change continues. The uncertainty is destabilizing.

We've been hearing a lot from people who have cancelled their plans to travel to the United States. We haven't heard as much from people who have decided that they're still going to go. Is there some shame that plays into this?

Well, so independently of how you frame it, whether just as a trade war or as something worse, when we try to do the right thing and disengage, there is a collective action problem. We're only going to be able to send that signal if enough people actually do it. One of the ways to enforce the solution to a collective action problem is through shame. So if someone goes, and we show them that we disapprove because we think it's a bad idea, that has an effect. 

I'm sure lots of Canadian families are talking about this around the dinner table. My family is no different. We have obligations in the United States. Are we going to go through with those? 

There might be some obligations you have that are stronger. But again, the framing matters. If it's about the trade war, then your personal obligations might carry the day. If it's about the authoritarian regime, less likely.

There's been a big push to buy Canadian. But an equivalent Canadian product might be difficult to find, and might also be much more costly.  How do you weigh your own values when it comes to the practicalities of trying to do the right thing?

I would say here that the obligations of those who can afford to buy Canadian are stronger than those who, you know, live hand to mouth and are faced with a Canadian product or a cheaper American product. I think it might be too demanding to ask them to adjust their consumption in certain cases. But those of us who can afford to do so, again, it's a signal that we send, and the more people send that signal, the stronger it is. It's that collective action problem that matters. 

How are you framing this personally? 

Unfortunately, I think the existential threat arguments are stronger. But you know, here's the thing, I think we all try to hang on to normality. But that's exactly the problem. Things are not normal right now. I think we need to communicate that, and we need to signal that to others who maybe haven't realized that.