Interesting times intensifies.
Trump slaps tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China
21–30 of 169 posts
Re: Trump slaps tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China
#22Canada was specifically warned not to retaliate in any manner, which is basically an acknowledgement that Canada has some powerful levers. This is farcical and of course Canada is going to retaliate. The $450B of American goods sold to Canada is going to collapse. The F35 purchase will be cancelled. Various other projects with the US will be abandoned. Oil will be export tariffed. Every American service -- Netflix, D…
> Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada will respond by placing 25% counter-tariffs on C$155 billion ($107 billion) worth of American-made products. That will include tariffs on C$30 billion worth as of Tuesday, with the rest coming later in February, to allow Canadian companies to adjust their supply chains and find alternatives.
> American beer, wine, food and appliances will be among the many items subject to Canadian tariffs, and the country is also considering measures related to critical minerals, Trudeau said. He encouraged Canadians to buy locally made products and skip US vacations.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-02-02/-complete...
https://globalnews.ca/news/10992959/donald-trump-tariffs-can...
Re: Trump slaps tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China
#23As I recently wrote on Cowen's blog, a lot of the electorate doesn't know how tariffs work. Say I manufacture a widget in [country]. At present, there is no manufacturer of that widget in the USA. We export to the USA, and now the US importer or distributor pays a ~25% tariff on the declared value to Fedgov. Then that US importer or distributor receives the widgets and sells them. Because its margin is down, it raise…
There's basically nothing that's manufactured only in Canada...
The vast majority of our exports are raw materials, and of our manufactured goods most are foreign multinationals that set up shop to take advantage of our cheap(er) labour versus the US... They can and will move to the US because of these tariffs.
This will decimate our economy and it really feels like Trudeau simply wants someone to blame our shit economic performance on...
Re: Trump slaps tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China
#24What's the plan here ? Tariff war with all main trading partners ? According to Trump EU tariffs are coming in soon. US can win any tariff war against a single country. They maybe could win against China or EU or Canada / Mexico alone. But all of them at once ? This is going to be a disaster for the US. Because of current sky-high stock market valuations, US thinks it's the only game in town. We will soon see if it's…
Trump has an infantile view of the economy. He seems to think that a trade deficit means the US is losing money, as if it was a business. If he can manufacturer a trade surplus then then he can do away with taxes.
He also seems to believe that tariffs are paid by the foreign countries, not American consumers. It is unfathomable that people voted for this idiot.
Re: Trump slaps tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China
#25Every article I’ve read on this contains some variation of the following: >Tariffs will only hurt American consumers >Countries targeted by tariffs will retaliate I think this speaks for itself…
I have never seen any article saying tariffs will "only" hurt American consumers. They hurt both sides and every article I have seen acknowledges this. However, American news sites tend to focus on the effects in the US, while Canadian news sites focus on the effects in Canada.
Re: Trump slaps tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China
#26As I recently wrote on Cowen's blog, a lot of the electorate doesn't know how tariffs work. Say I manufacture a widget in [country]. At present, there is no manufacturer of that widget in the USA. We export to the USA, and now the US importer or distributor pays a ~25% tariff on the declared value to Fedgov. Then that US importer or distributor receives the widgets and sells them. Because its margin is down, it raise…
There's basically nothing that's manufactured only in Canada... The vast majority of our exports are raw materials, and of our manufactured goods most are foreign multinationals that set up shop to take advantage of our cheap(er) labour versus the US... They can and will move to the US because of these tariffs. This will decimate our economy and it really feels like Trudeau simply wants someone to blame our shit econ…
Unless the world demand for these raw material goes down or production elsewhere goes up someone will still buy these raw materials. If tarriff is high enough to force US to source from and Canada to sell to more distant places the world will be less efficient.
Re: Trump slaps tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China
#27Every article I’ve read on this contains some variation of the following: >Tariffs will only hurt American consumers >Countries targeted by tariffs will retaliate I think this speaks for itself…
I have never seen any article saying tariffs will "only" hurt American consumers. They hurt both sides and every article I have seen acknowledges this. However, American news sites tend to focus on the effects in the US, while Canadian news sites focus on the effects in Canada.
I may have worded that wrong. Articles say that they will hurt American consumers and don’t address the actual purpose of the tariffs, which is to put political pressure on their targets. If the tariffs didn’t have at least some chance of succeeding at this, the targets wouldn’t be talking about retaliation.
Re: Trump slaps tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China
#28Canada was specifically warned not to retaliate in any manner, which is basically an acknowledgement that Canada has some powerful levers. This is farcical and of course Canada is going to retaliate. The $450B of American goods sold to Canada is going to collapse. The F35 purchase will be cancelled. Various other projects with the US will be abandoned. Oil will be export tariffed. Every American service -- Netflix, D…
> Every American service -- Netflix, Disney, Prime, Apple services -- need to have enormous tariffs applied. We can handle without them, and every enabler of this insanity needs to suffer.
No need to wait for tariffs. I started cancelling all American services today. Netflix and Prime were first. I will not send money to a country that has declared an unwarranted trade war on my country.
And it truly is unwarranted. The current trade agreements were negotiated by Trump in his last term, and are well balanced. The only reason for any current surplus is that oil prices are currently high. In general, Canadian raw resources go to the U.S. to be manufactured by skilled labour into end goods that are then imported back into Canada at a large markup. Trump has cited fentanyl and immigration as sticking points while providing no specific demands or suggestions. Less than 1% of illegal immigration to the U.S. comes via the Canadian border. It's incredibly frustrating to be utterly betrayed by a friend in this way.
Re: Trump slaps tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China
#29Imagine if every country does what Canada has and target specific states? If every country Trump goes after targets goods from the same few states they could devastate that state. Sure the US is bigger, but absolutely devastating just a few states economies could get some attention.
Re: Trump slaps tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China
#30Canada was specifically warned not to retaliate in any manner, which is basically an acknowledgement that Canada has some powerful levers. This is farcical and of course Canada is going to retaliate. The $450B of American goods sold to Canada is going to collapse. The F35 purchase will be cancelled. Various other projects with the US will be abandoned. Oil will be export tariffed. Every American service -- Netflix, D…
> Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada will respond by placing 25% counter-tariffs on C$155 billion ($107 billion) worth of American-made products. That will include tariffs on C$30 billion worth as of Tuesday, with the rest coming later in February, to allow Canadian companies to adjust their supply chains and find alternatives. > American beer, wine, food and appliances will be among the many items subject to…
Canada is specifically going after goods from red states. Imagine if every nation Trump goes after targeted the same states that Canada has? They can't devastate the entire USA but they can absolutely devastate a few US states if they play smart and work together. Especially poorer red states.