"If Trudeau and other politicians want to send Trump a message about tariffs, putting tariffs to zero is the solution."
"If Trudeau and other politicians want to send Trump a message about tariffs, putting tariffs to zero is the solution. Nobody wins a trade war, but you can win by not engaging in one.
"Show the US that you do not believe tariffs help and that not levelling them leaves your economy stronger. Show them the power of free trade.
"But, no, apparently Canada and everyone else would prefer to make it worse by taxing their [own] people. ..."~ Dwayne Davies from his post
4 comments:
Don't worry, he might be rolling them back tomorrow. What a genius.
Prime Minister Trudeau told President Trump that were these USA to place 25% or greater tariffs on Canadian exports to USA, then Canada would cease to be a country. He felt it could no longer exist. President Trump responded to this revelation by stating that if Canada couldn't stand on its own (which in the absence of access to the US market it can't) and needed to be subsidised by these USA in order to exist (which is what has been happening for a long time), then it already wasn't a country and really ought to be a state. The quiet part of the exchange (not widely reported in the MSM) is that for the average Canadian a political union would be preferable to continuing as vassals of the UK.
This has historical precedent. There have been previous efforts for Canada to rebel and seek freedom from the British Crown. During the American Revolution the Anglo-Canadians tended to side with the rebelling Americans while the French Canadians were divided. The gentry and the clergy tended to support the government while the common people tended not to- an elites versus commoners situation. At the time the rebels were unable to prevail (bad weather, disease racking their forces and the need to retreat to consolidate resources on securing the founding 13). Now it seems it is the time for the matter to be relitigated.
The suspicion is that Canada will eventually be absorbed, most probably as a state (or perhaps two) and a few territories or in some de facto arrangement. If this plays, then tariffs would have been used as powerful leverage towards a specific end. Horrible perhaps, but the objectives are quite clear and well understood. Should absorbing Canada indeed be the objective of the Executive of the US Federal Government, then there is no solution for the Canadian Government. Tariffs on imports into Canada could be set a zero or any other value but they would not stop the inevitable. The leverage of these US are far too great.
Oh Canada!
HJ
...putting tariffs to zero is the solution."
I'll be watching closely because controlled experiments in Economics are so rare.
Post a Comment