The final week before Christmas has been dotted with defeats for the Trump administration. One of the most notable defeats is that Seattle-based federal judge James Robart partially struck down the president's most recent restrictions on refugee immigration. The restrictions, enacted on October 24th, paused refugee admissions from Iran, Egypt, Iraq, Mali, Libya, North Korea, South Sudan, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen and Syria. Refugees from these mostly Middle Eastern and African countries have comprised over forty percent of the refugee populations admitted to the United States over the past three years. The freeze would remain in effect until a ninety-day security review had been completed by January. Robart declared that although the Trump administration was entitled to conduct the security review, it could not legally stop admitting refugees from the aforementioned countries so long as they had a legitimate connection to the United States. President Trump took to Twitter to scold Robart over the ruling, calling him a "so-called judge" whose "ridiculous" opinion "essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country." Human rights groups, however, have applauded Robart's decision. "This ruling brings relief to thousands of refugees in precarious situations in the Middle East and East Africa, as well as to refugees already in the U.S. who are trying to reunite with their spouses and children," stated Mariko Hirose, litigation director for the International Refugee Assistance Project and one of case's plaintiffs.
Moving on the international stage, tension has continued to grow in America's trade relations with Canada under the Trump presidency. Canada is the United States' second-largest good trading partner, with 2016 exports and imports adding up to an impressive $544 billion, and is the nation's largest export market as of 2016. Yet renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement has become a somewhat hostile process, especially after the U.S. issued trade sanctions on Canadian lumber. In addition, Boeing (NYSE: BA) has accused the Canadian aircraft-maker Bombardier (TSE: BBD.B) of benefitting unjustly from government subsidies in a $5.6 billion deal last year to sell regional jets to Delta. The International Trade Commission, an independent agency, will rule in early 2018 on the issue. Meanwhile, trade relations between the U.S. and Canada are becoming less amicable as trade talks enter the NAFTA renegotiations.
The U.S. found very little cooperation on other fronts at the United Nations. After President Trump stated his intent to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, he faced wide-scale international pushback. He retaliated by threatening to withhold U.S. aid from those countries that opposed his policy change. In response, the UN voted 128-9 denouncing the decision.
The United States was, however, successful in bringing together support for its new economic sanctions against North Korea. The United Nations Security Council passed the new restrictions 15-0. North Korea declared the new restrictions to be an "act of war" and threatened retaliation. The sanctions are the most severe that have ever been passed, yet experts still claim that sanctions will never be enough to curb Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions.