WASHINGTON, December 23. /TASS/. A number of US allies view Washington as an unreliable and negative player on the international stage due to the Donald Trump administration’s efforts to review the country’s foreign policy, according to a poll that Politico and the Public First research company conducted in the UK, France, Germany, and Canada.
The goal was to find out how Washington’s traditional allies are responding to changes in US foreign policy, including trade policy, criticism of a number of countries, including European nations, and the release of an updated national security strategy.
Most of those surveyed in Canada (56%) believe that the US negatively affects global processes. In the UK, 35% of respondents share this view, while in France and Germany, their share is 40%. More than half of those surveyed in Canada and Germany (63% and 52%, respectively) say the US creates issues for other countries more often than it helps solve them. The opinion is shared by 47% of respondents in France and 46% in the UK.
The anonymous poll, conducted on December 5-9, involved more than 10,500 people over the age of 18.
After Ottawa and Washington failed to strike a trade deal by August 1, Trump signed an executive order, raising tariffs on some Canadian goods from 25% to 35%. Canada has for months been trying in vain to reach a trade agreement with the US, while US tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum remain at 50%.
On December 5, Washington released the US National Security Strategy, which particularly highlights concern that Europe is on the verge of civilizational erasure due to the policy pursued by the EU leadership and other transnational bodies, and will be unrecognizable in 20 years. The US administration doubts that some European countries will have enough economic and military capacity to remain reliable allies for Washington.