And maybe the US will learn again, that a great deal is something that people can rely on?
Trump believes everything on this planet is zero sum, and the only way you can benefit is if the other party hurts. His entire history on this planet betrays this, where he is an unreliable scumbag to everyone he has ever dealt with, to the point where the guy couldn't find vendors or a bank outside of Russia to deal with him. And then Americans said "this is the guy we should put in charge". It is a particularly int…
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…
This ignores two facts. One, US has been the largest buyer of imported goods. As much as people think turning away is difficult and needs planning. Two, turning away requires time and planning. Supply chain isn't built in one day. People need time for that. In the short term - like next 3-4 years - it is going to look like countries caved. But in the long term Liberation Day will be remembered as one of the days whic…
Canada has been the largest buyer of US goods and services, limiting access to their markets where there are alternatives or they are luxuries can add up quickly. Even in the provinces that didn't outright ban US alcohol, the sales have gone down 55%. Alcohol is really easy though.
What Canada is doing is turning to trade with other countries. It is the main solution we have to this issue. It is a long game, but necessary. Ganging up on the US isn't likely to work well.
Because the US is such a good market at some point “caving” makes it a good deal
The trade deficit is what allows the US market to be a good market. If the US was closer to trade neutral or with a surplus it would be consuming considerably less and thus wouldn't be good anymore. Tough situation for other countries as if they don't agree then they can't access the market, but if they do agree to close the trade gap they'll decimate the market. The best option for them right now remains to withdraw from the market to the extent they must and hope things turn around soon so that things can go back to normal. The decimation option doesn't have a path to return to how things were and all they'll be left with is a bad market.
What Canada is doing is turning to trade with other countries. It is the main solution we have to this issue. It is a long game, but necessary. Ganging up on the US isn't likely to work well.
Because the US is such a good market at some point “caving” makes it a good deal
As a canadian, i'm so over this drama. They will either trade with us or they won't. If they don't it will be painful - but im happy with the government reciprocating in kind (so we arent being taken andvantage of), and then moving on as best as possible. At some point you have to stop worrying about the things you cannot change. If trump wants a lose-lose deal, so be it.
>so we arent being taken andvantage of
For the last time...that's not how trade works! People who say this in this context mean well, but are committing the exact same category error/misunderstanding of economics that Trump and his supporters are.
tariffs on tech i think is harder than just not accepting US patents and IP, and refusing protections on it
Copyright is a very quick one to change though. Imagine if suddenly you would no longer be getting doorknocks from the police for downloading Movies/Music/Games/Software from American companies. Europe just gets GTA6, for free, one hour after it comes out (or a day if it takes that long to crack it). Huge amounts of American wealth rely on the rest of the world playing by their rules.
Russia did that years ago. Which is why "ok.ru" has American movies. Of course, who knows what else is embedded in the download.
But what might work would be if the EU dropped back to the minimum copyright term of the Berne Convention - 50 years. Preferably measured from first publication.
You still think any of his moves are driven by 'what's good for the US'? I think it's motivated entirely by schemes to stuff his pockets with money.
It's worse than that. He is so completely off that he thinks this means US builders will chose to buy US lumber instead and that will work out positively for everyone in the US.
He doesn't give a shit about US lumber or US builders.
If he isn't stuffing his pockets, he's leveraging the populist playbook. In this case, 'scapegoating'.
But let's be honest, he likely has a huge amount of debt. Before he came into office he almost certainly fixed the interest on that debt knowing he could blow inflation through the roof and inflate it away.
You are both right. The world capitulates more than it should. But the world is also moving away and building contingencies. The world needs leadership. And Canada is helping with that. I do not think that reciprocal tariffs are actually the answer though. They hurt both sides and the US is not a rational enough actor to respond like you hope they will. The answer is in shifting trade away from the US and isolating t…
As a Canadian, my hope is that we can build stronger relations with Europe. I don't think anyone can avoid China but I would rather minimize those ties. We can't afford to cut all ties with United States due to our geography and history, however it would be prudent for us to reduce our dependency. I don't think majority of Canadians wish to see the nation in such a vulnerable position again with regards to US. Bankin…
Nah, what you are looking at is not values, but decades of American propaganda. Are you talking about values that allow a country to arbitrarily decide what another country's economic or political system should be, and then use military and economic force to destroy them if they don't comply? Are you talking about values that allow companies to enter poorer countries, exploit them while corrupting their elite, and then enable those same elites to bring that money back to the West? Or are you talking about values where it is okay for a country to commit genocide, as long as they are white-skinned? You are part of the same problem that Trump and his cronies are that you superior to rest of the world.