On the eve of the next expected escalation of President Donald Trump's trade war with the world, consider the plight of America's orange juice producers.
America exports a lot of orange juice to Canada—because we have an obvious comparative advantage when it comes to growing citrus fruit. In 2023, Canada bought $281 million worth of fruit juice from the United States.
In Trump's flawed way of looking at trade, that would mean America is somehow ripping Canada off, but this is actually a great deal for everyone involved. Canadians get orange juice that they can't produce on their own. America's orange growers and juicemakers get a larger market for sales. And lots of other people on both sides of the border make a buck by hauling, warehousing, stocking, and selling all that juice.
