Canadian exports make up for only 2 - 4% of the American economy - a negligible amount that the Americans can supplant from elsewhere. The US congress will not likely make a move. NW
Canada is a resourse based ecomomy where natural resources are the king. Manufacturing was mostly in Ontario and Quesbec. Onatario’s Auto pack died in the 90s, causing that province to nickel and dime every provincial budget for the last 25 years. The big tech industry of computers and cell phone did have some successes, but overseas manufacturing is more profitable. Most of that raw material is exported and then imported as manufactured items. Its cheaper to manufacture overseas and in the states.
Canada has some of the highest trade barriers and tariffs in the world and has an extremely protectionist trade policy. The NAFTA agreement has traditionally exclusively benefited Canada at the cost of America. NW
Good for Canada.
This protects our high wages for the the person that sweep the floor at any manufacturing plant instead of having him on welfare. sarcasm
If you've ever traveled abroad, or tried to ship items from the states, you'll note that anything above the value of 20 $ CAD will be taxed upon import into Canada, while this limit is 750 $ USD if you import into the states. We have high dairy, lumber, mineral, and petroleum taxes in addition to massive VAT across all goods. Everything coming into Canada is slapped with a tariff and the consumers pay for it. We are one of the worst violators of the free-trade agreement, and were only included in the old 1994 treaty as a courtesy for borrowed airspace for the American NORAD program. As a result, Canada has some of the most anti-competition policies in the world and our goods and services industry is dominated by inefficient manufacturers and government sponsored contracts. NW
Well just look these are the only stores you need for everyday life. WALMART, Cdn Tire, BEST Buy, and a Grocery Store and a gas station. Need I say that Canada is a socialist country, and that is why the high taxes.
I can understand why we have some of these protectionist policies.. because we have limited business opportunities and market..
And four country as a whole has less population then California or the eastern states. And they would just dump product in Canada at low prices..
And that would impact the job market and manufacturing.
I hope he sticks to what best for Canada.
Give us a taxe break. So we can afford the higher prices. JS
Canada is a socialist country, we give everything away to politicians and people on welfare in order to buy votes for the next election. And to repay the political allies. Our manufactured goods are mostly created in Asian countries, imported throught he states (WALMART) or directly from China. Tax breaks are pipe dreams, because of the politicians and we are a socialist country….
I think it’s critical to understand that we are not dealing with a good faith negotiator on the other side of the table. This administration wants to beat us into submission. I think our negotiating team now realizes that they are dealing with a different animal. G
Those negotiating for Canada already knew this, just couldn’t say so publicly…. They are not stupid….
Trump's rhetoric against Mexico was much stronger than anything he's said about Canada, but they managed to get a deal.
The failure to be part of a deal is squarely on the ineffectual negotiators from Canada.
The US is our closest, biggest trading partner. We have to get a deal me might not like. Where are we going to sell our cars and lumber? Vietnam? CT
Again the beaucrats aren’t stupid. May I predict a painful Trade War with the US. No creature comforts, so we Canadians will have to make the stuff for overselves.
We've always needed protection or we'd have no industry at all because who can compete with them? Without tariffs we'd just be mining logging and maybe farming certain crops. Next time you shop for vegetables look at where they come from, even apples come from Washington and potatoes from Idaho because they're cheaper than ours. BO
Look at education in our provinces. Used to be a lot of skills courses to teach kids to work with their hands (metuallury, wood work, forestry, home economics- cooking, sewing etc). Now there are few schools that teach hands on skills and teaching has gone to the computer IT or sciences. No one wants to be doctor, too long in school, high tutition fees etc.. Better to try to be hockey/sports player
Time to threaten drug patents and intellectual property rights.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/secon...erty-1.4708630
Maybe a few calls from the CEO's of Pfizer, J & J, Glaxo Smith Kline, Sony Music, Google, Apple, etc will get Trump's attention. JB
Canada already has deals with some major drug companies making the drugs cheaper in Canada. But the ideal of hitting their patents is a good one.
Maybe why the US went to war in the Gulf and Afghanistan because Muslim Countries don’t believe in Patents.
I've read it here before and it is the ultimate weapon to use in a trade war. I think it was a couple of smaller countries in South or Central America who last threatened it against bullying by the USA. The USA dropped the bullying immediately and left them alone.
That said, if we are face trade with no trade agreement in place and they force a massive downfall in our economy by putting duties on our auto industry; entering legislation to kill their patents in Canada is probably the right course to take. Washington is run by lobbyists on behalf of all of those industries and the thought of a Northern neighbour no longer observing patents would create havoc in the US Congress and Senate.
Also it was mentioned the US and Mexico got the deal done without any problems. Ah, the Mexican's have a new President coming into office soon. The outgoing President agreed to this new deal. Do you really think it was done to benefit the opposing political party? I doubt it but we will see. BBB
Smoke and Mirrors, The D needs the free trade because he hasn’t come up with anything substantial before the elections in November, where likely the Democrats will have majorities in both house, due to bungling Donald tweets.
I didn't say anything about US violating free trade. Canada has been and is the most sued NAFTA country. We have violated more NAFTA conventions that Mexcio and US combined. I also do not believe Canada has ever won a NAFTA case vs the US. The US is more efficient and competitive, not more violating. NW
The problem is that if a Canadian government (provincial or federal) want to protect an area, and a free trade agreement takes away their soventry in this area, then there should be no free trade agreement. What about softwood lumber?
Very good! Someone who actually knows hat they are writing about.
And when it come to dairy supply management, even the American farmers will tell you that they wish they had supply management. The current system in the USA requires, as bbb writes in his post, massive subsidies in order for some of the dairy farmers to survive. I also know I don't want to drink the hormone laced milk produced by the USA farmers.
And the feast and famine that the USA farmers have experienced has been going on for many years. When I was much younger, and still helping my dad out on his dairy farm, I remember we were able to buy quality diary cows from the USA with these ugly tattoos on their faces? What the hell you say? The American government had paid the American dairy farmer top dollars to apply the tattoos. Why you ask? Because of overproduction of milk in the USA. These cows, once tattooed, were not allowed to be used anywhere in the USA for the purposes of producing milk. Many of these cows were slaughtered for meat (very wasteful!), but since these were high producing dairy cows, the farmers instead sold some of them ioutside of the country for more $$$. You must admit that limiting milk production in this manner, while effective, was highly inefficient!
The Canadian supply management system is not perfect, but at least it does not require Canadian government subsidies, making hamburger out of very expensive dairy animals, or require charity concerts by Willie Nelson to keep dairy farmers from going broke. And supply management guarantees a constant supply of high quality milk for the Canadian consumer.
JD
Just remember what the subsidies to the US grain/farmers did to the USSR. The US supplied grain to them and took it away, people in eastern Europe were starving and then the Berlin Wall came down. Once access to any of our food supplies is granted then we are at another countries mercy.
Wh
at people should understand is that DT Is “Do as I say, not as I do” kinda person. He wants to make America Great again. Increase manufacturing jobs that in American can’t compete with countries that have lower wages. His own companies get things manufactured in Asia, and brings them back the US to sell at higher profit. He wants to take all the rules the US congress has on business restrictions in order to have a more free market system , which will lose all sense of control (thing 1929 stock market crash). Yes over the last 20 years a lot of American economic restrictions have been lifted, which resulted in the 2008 crash of a mortgage company where thousands lost their homes… and for the next 7 years the US economy was shits…. No bankers went to jail over this… cause they took from the poor to give to the rich
