Canada will match US tariffs 'dollar for dollar' as trade talks break down • Hacker News Board

Re: Canada will match US tariffs 'dollar for dollar' as trade talks break down

#491

Post by mmooss » Sat, Aug 22, 2026, 3:46 PM UTC

hunglee2 wrote: post #413

The world should've collectively recognised what Liberation Day was and responded together, in lock step, and in kind. Instead, the Europeans caved, Japanese caved (PM resigned after doing so), Republic of Korea caved (PM resigned after doing so), India of course caved and so on, shattering any prospect of collective action which might pull the rogue hegemon back into line. Now, the US is simply able to renege or ren…

They were not prepared and at least had to mitigate immediate harm, while preparing their economies, security, etc. to be less entangled with the US.

But once they are 'prepared' as best they can, one approach is for other countries to decide / accept that the US is mostly a lost cause while Trump or most other Republicans are in power, which will happen at times. It will affect their economies but they cannot control that. Negotiating with the US only encourages more bad behavior.

The rest of the world could then recreate (or continue) the global trading system, including the WTO, simply excluding countries that violate its rules. This puts the ball in the US's court to participate or not, never slamming the door in the US's face, always welcoming and encouraging them rhetorically, by their rules, and genuinely ('we look forward to our friends in the US joining and enjoying the benefits of doing business with the rest of the world').

In the meantime, global trade rules would be created in the interests of the other countries, without the US having a voice - a great boon after decades of US domination of such rules. This incentivizes the US to join sooner rather than later.

(It seems to me - I have no expertise in this area.)

Re: Canada will match US tariffs 'dollar for dollar' as trade talks break down

#492

Post by fifilura » Sat, Aug 22, 2026, 3:48 PM UTC

dzonga wrote: post #480

hunglee2 wrote: post #413

The world should've collectively recognised what Liberation Day was and responded together, in lock step, and in kind. Instead, the Europeans caved, Japanese caved (PM resigned after doing so), Republic of Korea caved (PM resigned after doing so), India of course caved and so on, shattering any prospect of collective action which might pull the rogue hegemon back into line. Now, the US is simply able to renege or ren…

they carved because most of those places want access to the 'yuuuge' US market. politics vs reality. they could correct though by selling US treasuries - but that would make the world economy sneeze which might result in pneumonia.

The parent point is that the response should have been done collectively.

USA market is "yuuge", but rest-of-the-world market is much much bigger.

Re: Canada will match US tariffs 'dollar for dollar' as trade talks break down

#493

Post by fatbird » Sat, Aug 22, 2026, 3:48 PM UTC

blitzar wrote: post #434

thesmtsolver2 wrote: post #430

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The world collectively had so much trade barriers for US goods and services and still has. They just weren’t direct like tariffs.

> trade barriers for US goods and services are the trade barriers in the room with us?

In the softwood lumber dispute that's been going on for decades, the US raised (legitimately) the point that in Canada, land is granted by permit to loggers for only nominal fees; in the U.S. loggers have to pay significant amounts for rights to log. This is effectively a gov't subsidy to Canadian loggers by comparison with American loggers, allowing Canadian loggers to sell softwoods at a lower price.

This is the difficulty with discussing "trade barriers": things that are simply handled differently in different countries can be (arguably) economic factors that discriminate against one side or the other, hence they're trade barriers. Complicating it further, one can create barriers that have plausible deniability, or point to unrelated factors and scream "TRADE BARRIER".

I know someone who was involved for a while in the softwood lumber discussions. Just an absolute snake pit trying to suss out what are real barriers, intended barriers, relevant inputs... and all of this in the context of negotiations over the same, so everything is also "does he mean this or is he distracting us from something else or just building up a talking point to surrender later?"

Re: Canada will match US tariffs 'dollar for dollar' as trade talks break down

#494

Post by nekusar » Sat, Aug 22, 2026, 3:49 PM UTC

Ylpertnodi wrote: post #432

nekusar wrote: post #374

Ya know, there's not a damned thing I can do about any of this, other than TRY to get citizenship elsewhere and leave this shithole. And fascism is taking hold lots of other places as well. Canada's a laugh, with Alberta seperatism. And they also had trump trucker caravans. EU? They're boiling in their own juices with the fact they now need air conditioning due to climate devastation... And many countries make it ill…

>And many countries make it [aircon] illegal without health reasons. Name one country that has done this.

https://consumerchoicecenter.org/keeping-it-cool-removing-hu...

How about 29 countries?

"AC penetration stands only at 19% (vs. 90% US, 91% Japan). This is not a cultural inevitability but a regulatory outcome"

And specifically Geneva Switzerland, it requires medical need to install air conditioning. https://www.gazetaexpress.com/en/Why-are-air-conditioners-al...

Re: Canada will match US tariffs 'dollar for dollar' as trade talks break down

#495

Post by enraged_camel » Sat, Aug 22, 2026, 3:53 PM UTC

bambax wrote: post #423

hunglee2 wrote: post #413

The world should've collectively recognised what Liberation Day was and responded together, in lock step, and in kind. Instead, the Europeans caved, Japanese caved (PM resigned after doing so), Republic of Korea caved (PM resigned after doing so), India of course caved and so on, shattering any prospect of collective action which might pull the rogue hegemon back into line. Now, the US is simply able to renege or ren…

Absolutely agree; but it's never too late to react. Europe could impose tariffs on US tech or forbid it altogether to bid on government contracts. Etc. What are we waiting for.

>> What are we waiting for.

For Europe to become fully self-sufficient when it comes to defense, for one thing.

Re: Canada will match US tariffs 'dollar for dollar' as trade talks break down

#496

Post by fatbird » Sat, Aug 22, 2026, 3:54 PM UTC

thesmtsolver2 wrote: post #430

hunglee2 wrote: post #413

The world should've collectively recognised what Liberation Day was and responded together, in lock step, and in kind. Instead, the Europeans caved, Japanese caved (PM resigned after doing so), Republic of Korea caved (PM resigned after doing so), India of course caved and so on, shattering any prospect of collective action which might pull the rogue hegemon back into line. Now, the US is simply able to renege or ren…

The world collectively had so much trade barriers for US goods and services and still has. They just weren’t direct like tariffs.

The U.S. also has a huge amount of trade barriers that are indirect against the rest of the world. Don't act like the U.S. is the victim here.

One example: In Canada, there's a vibrant french language film industry, meaning films in french that originate and are made in Canada and then marketed abroad. The english language equivalent is anemic because decades ago, as part of trade negotiations, the Canadian gov't gutted subsidies for english language film production as a trade barrier against Hollywood.

Re: Canada will match US tariffs 'dollar for dollar' as trade talks break down

#497

Post by rhyperior » Sat, Aug 22, 2026, 3:56 PM UTC

guessbest wrote: post #474

Is YC News an American website? It seems like all the comments are advising against American interests with regards to tariffs.

Are you not loyal and patriotic if you see your government is bad for the people and you support opposition to it?

US citizen here. Fight back against my government, please, even when the current admin is replaced with another more benign one.

Re: Canada will match US tariffs 'dollar for dollar' as trade talks break down

#498

Post by lunatuna » Sat, Aug 22, 2026, 3:57 PM UTC

toomuchtodo wrote: post #448

sandeepkd wrote: post #439

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a classical problem. In theory it works when majority of the players work together and move in same direction, however everyone being opportunistic here makes in infeasible from long term perspective. Europe itself is in a difficult stage, its dealing with Russia on one end, has trust issues with China and now the its long term partner has gone rouge. The result of all this would be a mandate to be self suffi…

That multipolar world mandate you mentioned is already here today. That was the outcome of the actions of this US federal administration. Trust and cooperation is done for a half decade or more. The world can’t trust this administration for the remainder of the administration, and they can’t trust the US electorate to elect adults for the next administration. Countries can either accept it and take action to manage t…

I think this is where Carney landed. Trust is gone. Further, the US and the world would have a precedence in dealing with Canada. Accepting a bad deal would maintain an illusion that this was good enough and to continue on in this direction. Once Trump is gone the negotiations could restart but at a much less valuable position to Canada.

Canada has had a long term investment and productivity challenge with too much focused on North and South. I suspect that this is now the catalyst for East and West investment.

I think the calculation was that no deal and the natural consequences are not that much worse than the deal on the table short term. And taking into account the future of the above it was going to be worse.

Re: Canada will match US tariffs 'dollar for dollar' as trade talks break down

#499

Post by rjrjrjrj » Sat, Aug 22, 2026, 3:59 PM UTC

qball wrote: post #387

sanderjd wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're right that this will be more painful for Canada, economically, but I'm not so sure about "way more". But politically , it will be much more painful for the US side of the negotiation than for the Canadian side. The Carney administration is on much firmer political ground than the Trump administration. Time is on Carney's side.

>The Carney administration is on much firmer political ground I don't think so. Time really isn't on Carney's side either. Carney's new tariffs fall on those who, in aggregate, did not vote for him. The average Carney voter has been very vocal about wanting to pursue this tactic- that's why they elected him. (That average voter is an Eastern retiree whose holdings are generally in real estate, so they don't care abou…

a loud minority in rural Alberta is not "the West"

Re: Canada will match US tariffs 'dollar for dollar' as trade talks break down

#500

Post by nekusar » Sat, Aug 22, 2026, 4:00 PM UTC

dustbunny wrote: post #408

nekusar wrote: post #374

Ya know, there's not a damned thing I can do about any of this, other than TRY to get citizenship elsewhere and leave this shithole. And fascism is taking hold lots of other places as well. Canada's a laugh, with Alberta seperatism. And they also had trump trucker caravans. EU? They're boiling in their own juices with the fact they now need air conditioning due to climate devastation... And many countries make it ill…

Id like to suggest that you rethink your opinion on the trucker caravan protest. It is a reasonable position to frame them as opposing authoritarian government policies and for the governments response to be overreach. The popularity of the trucker protest made and makes sense. Big anti government movements like that attract all sorts of bad actors and the media and government worked to highlight the worst aspects of…

> It is a reasonable position to frame them as opposing authoritarian government policies and for the governments response to be overreach.

Well that's a big coded pile of bullshit.

What polices are "overreach"? By what standards? What authoritarian rules are being protested?

Oh that's right. It's all anti-vaxxer and 'cure yourself of Covid with bleach and ivermectin' bullshittery.

I have absolutely no fucking sympathy for a bunch of covidiots. Doubly so, since these chuckle fucks were ALSO pro-Trumpers.

> black and white American fool that has created the political environment in the USA.

And it's hilarious that you wouldn't touch the Alberta seperatism/fascist movement happening right now. You all like to pretend your shit doesn't stink... And well, I smelled it during wildfire season. Turn my sky yellow orange.

But all of this is spoken like a Republican riling shit up on Facebook.