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

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

#441

Post by dawnerd »

softwaredoug wrote: post #195
robmccoll wrote: post #122

Huh 30% of our lumber just got 50% more expensive. Good thing we don't have shortages of affordable housing that need new construction to solve. Brilliant stuff Donald. Truly some 4D chess moves.

Lumber is not part of these tariffs. These are on a narrow set of products. Lumber is a different long standing trade dispute going back to the 80s unrelated to the industries targeted by the 50% tariffs. Trump created a 10% Lumber tariff in Sept 2025, but it was already tariffed before that. Canadian lumber today isn’t suddenly 50% more expensive. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada%E2%80%93United_States_s...

True but it won’t stop price gouging or as the company uses have been calling it price blending.

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

#442

Post by toomuchtodo »

iamjs wrote: post #436
toomuchtodo wrote: post #417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They still can of course, all they need to do is collectively start selling off their US treasuries. The US is at a highly vulnerable and precarious point with their potential bond market debt spiral situation, and this is a point of leverage that can be exploited to encourage improved behavior from a bully. This capital can then be reallocated into domestic investment to continue to decouple from the US. Very simila…

Couldn't the US buy back more bonds through QE than any foreign country could sell?

Debasing the currency is equivalent to a soft default, and would accelerate investment away from the dollar and treasuries. Mechanically, certainly, it can be done, but investors won’t do nothing while the US inflates their asset value away. They’ll take the loss (which they’d take anyway from monetizing the debt) and reallocate elsewhere.

Part of the reason Ray Dalio was on Bloomberg saying to sell bonds and buy gold or Bitcoin. Treasuries used to be where capital would “flee for safety” and that concept is breaking down.

Dalio Says Sell Bonds, Buy Gold, Bitcoin as Debt Crisis Looms - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-21/dalio-say... | https://archive.today/jlUBA - August 21st, 2026

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

#443

Post by andrew_eu »

khriss wrote: post #276

The craziest thing is, that in spite of the obvious, balatant corruption and supreme incompetence of the US govt, Trump still has around 35% approval rating. That means the hardcore MAGA base is a third of the US population. I genuinely don't know how to reconcile that with the long term future of the United States.

In Pale Blue Dot, Carl Sagan referenced some survey from the 80s in which one of the findings was that ~20% of Americans agreed to the statement "the sun is alive." In trying to find that survey for this comment I instead found this one from Time in the 2000s [0], in which 26% of Americans (N=2200) responded that the sun revolves around the Earth. America is a big and diverse place, full of people that have little attachment to reality.

0: https://time.com/7809/1-in-4-americans-thinks-sun-orbits-ear...

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

#444

Post by Muromec »

vintermann wrote: post #96
stephbook wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Europe/EU are highly reliant on the US military and these issues are linked.

For what? Defense against Russia? I suspect that if my country gave Putin what we give to the US - military bases where they can do whatever they please no questions asked, real-time intelligence access, unofficial favored supplier status for anything that might be control-relevant, quiet veto power over any national policy decision deemed "strategic" - then we wouldn't have to worry about invasion - from Russia anyw…

Did not help Armenia for some reason

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

#445

Post by ericmay »

bad_haircut72 wrote: post #424
ericmay wrote: post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

the advantage US labs have is that we use them. If chinese labs got 1 years worth of usage from everyone else as their daily driver, they would catchup if not overtake the US based firms - assuming you even think that they're truly behind anyway.

Ok. Don’t use them and then we’ll just leverage China’s models too. What’s the problem? Why does the US need to lead in AI if Europe (and everyone else) prefers to partner with China? We can just partner with them too. They can have Taiwan. We can pull out of NATO and bring our troops home from overseas bases around the world. It’ll save us a lot of military spend and then we don’t have to play these games anymore.

Besides we can just distill Chinese modules and release open weights like they do now.

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

#446

Post by amelius »

hunglee2 wrote: post #429
bambax wrote: post #423

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

the bilateral deals signed means we (the world, minus the US) is already divided. Got to scrap those deals first, which isn't going to happen. The shark has scattered the shoal and we're all going to get picked off - perpetually signing worse deals, then having to renegotiate again before signing ever worse terms.

If Trump can scrap bilateral deals, then others can too, using similar tactics if necessary.

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

#447

Post by amelius »

steveBK123 wrote: post #366
sghiassy wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Art of the Deal

His negotiating methods, if one can call them that, are like "single use weapons" that are relationship burning rather than building. If you are doing 100s of one-off deals with counterparties you will never talk to again, and who don't know each other.. it might actually work. But you burn the ability to make more deals with the same counterparty again. If you played this game with your neighbor over a fenceline or…

Meanwhile mister Trump is doing quite well financially, so he is doing something right; and your theory is not covering the whole story.

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

#448

Post by toomuchtodo »

sandeepkd wrote: post #439
toomuchtodo wrote: post #417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They still can of course, all they need to do is collectively start selling off their US treasuries. The US is at a highly vulnerable and precarious point with their potential bond market debt spiral situation, and this is a point of leverage that can be exploited to encourage improved behavior from a bully. This capital can then be reallocated into domestic investment to continue to decouple from the US. Very simila…

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 their risk (redirect investment to continue to decouple, trade deals with rational counterparties) to attempt to achieve a favorable outcome, or not and experience the potential natural consequences.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43284950 - March 2025

> “How can I decouple from the US as fast as possible?” is what this leads to.

> Diplomacy is the art of saying “good dog” until you make it to the rock. The US will apply pressure for short term gain against allies while they move away long term.

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

#449

Post by martythemaniak »

Question for Americans: do you guys understand what's happening?

The thing to keep in mind is that the current trade agreement was negotiated and signed by Trump himself. He has spent the last 18 months seeing what a terrible deal it is. He does not want a "deal" into conventional sense, that is an agreement that works for both parties. He needs the counterparty to be humiliated and subjugated. CUSMA (the current agreement he promoted and signed) is bad because it works for all parties, it does not subjugate and humiliate the counterparties.

What happened in these particular trade negotiations? Is that the actual negotiators had something worked out earlier in the week, then at the last minute the US made some new demand that was meant to humiliate Canada, and this tanked the negotiations. What exactly did they ask for? It's irrelevant, the point was humiliation.

Actual trade policy, whether you want access to Canadian dairy market, or lumber tarrif rates or whatever, none of that matters.

Is this a common understanding down south?

Edit: after I wrote the above, it came out that the thing they demanded last minute is restricting Canada's ability to trade with other countries. Obviously, no PM would agree to such a thing, it's purpose isn't to have a deal, but as I said, subjugation and humiliation. https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/livestory/us-canada-trade-war-...

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