Canada has been ripping off the United States for decades — and President Donald J. Trump is done letting them get away with it. Last week, the U.S. offered Canada the most preferential market access of any country on Earth, with deep cuts on steel, aluminum, autos, lumber, and more. Instead of partnership, Canada chose unreasonable demands, walk-backs, and flat-out rejection.
The record of Canadian abuse is clear and deliberate:
FACT: Canada is joined only by the People’s Republic of China in choosing retaliation over negotiation. Their continued discriminatory treatment of U.S. commerce has burdened American workers, farmers, and businesses.
FACT: Canada alone imposed discriminatory 25% tariffs and company-specific quotas on U.S. motor vehicles — measures applied to no other country. As a result, U.S. vehicle exports to Canada crashed 22% over the last year.
FACT: Canada banned American wine, beer, and spirits in nearly every province and territory — while other countries have faced no such restrictions. As a result, U.S. alcohol exports to Canada collapsed 81% in a single year.
FACT: Canada locks out U.S. dairy with tariff-rate quotas far more restrictive than those given to Europe, plus over-quota tariffs of nearly 300% — rates so extreme they function as a near-total ban and rank among the highest agricultural tariffs in the developed world.
FACT: Canada has extracted a persistent average annual goods trade deficit of roughly $50 billion from the U.S. over the last decade — while refusing reciprocal access.
FACT: Canada targeted American aerospace manufacturer Gulfstream for years.They effectively prohibited the sale of its G500, G600, G700, and G800 models while shielding its own competitor — until President Trump intervened.
FACT: Canada’s protectionist barriers — discriminatory auto quotas, alcohol bans, and dairy lockouts — have hammered American companies. This has cost U.S. producers billions in lost sales, forced layoffs, and driven market share to foreign competitors who face none of the same restrictions.
FACT: Without the United States, Canada could not survive. Canada sends roughly three-quarters of all its goods exports to America — and the U.S. market is where Canada gets the overwhelming majority of its money and economic oxygen.
FACT: Canada’s failed trade policies are driving its own manufacturers south. A recent survey found 42% of Canadian manufacturers have already moved or are planning to move production to the U.S.
FACT: Canada is doubling down on tariffs targeting American workers. Canada just announced an additional $27.6 billion in tariffs on American businesses — including a 50% tariff on American steel and aluminum, a 25% tariff on American fish, and a 25% tariff on American tools.
FACT: The U.S. economy is approximately 13 times larger than the Canadian economy and home to over eight times as many people. The United States has the clear leverage.
President Trump said it best: “Canada is easily the most difficult and unreasonable. They feel entitled, but they are not a State, and will be entitled no longer!” Canadian leadership chose retaliation over partnership — and America is no longer willing to carry them.
Lake Ontario was actually named before Canada became a country. It was named by people living in the current United States. Ontario, the province, was named after the Lake. Ontario is the word in the name of a tribe of indigenous Americans.
https://x.com/tracey_halligan/status/2094988436436295754
Fact: Tariffs are a TAX paid by consumers. You and I are consumers and we will carry the burden of this trade war along with the tariffs imposed on every other country in the world.
ReplyDeleteJDH
JDH ... I'm not in the mood this morning to go into the intricacies of the tariff dilemma, so I'm just gonna ignore your comment other than what I've already said.
DeleteMorning, Karl!
ReplyDeleteGot coffee? It's getting glorious!
https://x.com/truckdriverpleb/status/2094940623480524895?s=20
Morning, Marcus. That was excellent. I'm going to put it up later on the blog.
Delete(I'm having a rough time today. Just trying to get in a breathing treatment when I saw your comment. Thanks.)
India put a 300% tariff on all imported goods. Nearly overnight, private businesses started manufacturing these goods locally. While tariffs are a tax on the population, in a free market society, local businesses win when they adapt. Tariffs are an incentive to become more independent by bringing production home.
ReplyDeleteI'll take things that didn't happen for 500 Alex!
DeleteA. There is no manufacturing, assembly line or production that can be "nearly overnight" moved to a different location.
B. You should go read Reagan's 1987 speech on tariffs.
C. Tariffs are communism. It is the government setting the price for products and goods.
If a product is $10 and you impose 300% tariff the only thing that will happen overnight is that the product will be sold for $30 regardless of origin. Tariffs are not only a tax on consumers they also provide cover for local manufacturers to raise their prices. Why would you still sell your product for $10 if your imported competitor has to sell for $30?
Tariffs kill competition, innovation and incentivizes crony-capitalism. The best way for a local manufacturer to keep their competitive advantage in this kind of scenario is to lobby and line the pockets of the politician in charge of the tariffs.
Tariffs are anti-free market and 100% a socialist/communist type tool. It is the government setting the domestic price and not the free market/competition dictating market price and winners/losers
True story: When tariffs were enacted, the company I work for decided to reorganize what and where they build equipment and insourced a bunch of work from Mexico.
DeleteResult: more locally sourced jobs, and hundreds of people getting recall notices.
When courts ruled Trump's tariff EO was illegal, the company outsourced work back to Mexico and the people who took their recalls got laid off again.
So fuck off, anon 9:28.
You have no idea what you're talking about.
-lg
Anon @ 9:28: obviously when I said "nearly overnight", you took that literally. Anyone worth a shed of common sense can see obviously large operations can't do that. But the decision to shift an entire company to work towards that goal can be done in seconds.
DeleteAnd rather than investing a moment of time researching whether I'm correct or not, you would rather spout off your lack of knowledge and understanding. You sound like a Democrat without any understanding of economics. Do your research.
I guess I don't understand. If someone charges tariffs to sell my products in their country why would I not do same to them selling products in my country?
ReplyDeleteYou're 100% correct. But here is what most Americans don't realize. When Canada and America first setup the trade/tariff structure between the 2 nations they agreed that there would be graduated tariffs on anything that Canada can produce. Graduated means that they scale with the amount brought across the border. For example, dairy products, the first 12,000 gallons of milk would have 0% tariffs, the next 12,000 gallons would be at another rate (don't quote me, I can't remember the exact numbers) something like 11%, the third tier was at something like 70%, and the final tier was something like 240%. This would prevent giant US corporations from dominating small Canadian companies in the market while still allowing some to come across the border to help with supply. And what did America get to compensate for this? A number of things, but the main benefit was $25 per barrel off the price of Canadian oil exports. (If I recall this was when the price of oil was somewhere around the $30-$40 a barrel cost.
DeleteWhat Trudeau and Carney have done to cash in on this is dumb and only hurting the us/canada trade relations.