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Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of November 25
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In the latest round of "Wait... Seriously?"
Trump pledges 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico, more on China too
Wouldn't that violate the free trade agreement that he set up after scrapping the previous one because he said it was unfair to the USA?
As an aside, I am quite amused by the idea that Mexico and Canada -- both of which suffer immensely from the illicit flow of fentanyl across their borders -- have the "power to easily solve this long simmering problem" (Trump's words), whereas the US is powerless and must resort to tariffs.
Probably, but I don't know the provisions for withdrawal or nullification of that agreement. NAFTA was a six month process IIRC not counting the time they talked about it before hand.
Mexico and China I'm not surprised by, but... Canada? If he goes through with that with tariffs on the UK and EU, I wonder if over her in the EU we'll end up with trade agreements specifically with the UK and Canada to lessen the blow of such a thing. We could probably deal with a blow from the US, but I hope this doesn't go through for the Canadians. :/ I can't imagine how hard that must hurt them for no good reason.
Eh, it makes sense if you know the history of all the still ongoing trade disputes between our two countries. And it's not just Trump that has imposed, increased, or threatened new tariffs on us either. The Biden admin very recently almost doubled the tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber exports to the US from 8.05% to 14.54%. And that industry in particular has been a major bone of contention between our two countries for decades. See: Canada–United States softwood lumber dispute
But to be fair, it's not just the US that imposes tariffs. The reverse happens too. E.g. We impose 240-300% tariffs on American milk and various dairy products once certain import quotas are met. We're very very protective of our dairy industry up here in Canada, and also have much stricter regulations regarding antibiotic, and artificial growth hormone use on dairy cows, which the US has never liked.
Huh, guess the relations look far more solid from across the Atlantic. Though, a general increase in all tariffs still sounds heavy. We'll see I guess.
Oh, don't get me wrong. Our trade relations are still pretty solid despite there being a few industries we regularly feud over. Under Trump's last term they suffered quite a bit, but not nearly as much as they will if he follows through with imposing blanket tariffs. But the US still has a huge trade deficit ($130Bn) with us, so it's actually going to hurt them a hell of a lot more than it'll hurt us, at least as far as product price increases go. They rely on us for a lot of natural resources, just like they rely on China and Mexico for manufacturing. Whereas we don't rely on the US for nearly as much. Americans really fucked themselves over by voting for this moron. If they think product price inflation is bad now, wait until his tariffs kick in and start drastically affecting the prices of everything they buy.
I'm actually surprised the trade surplus is that large, and how much it's from natural resources. Well, keeping geography and industries in mind it makes sense I suppose. But with how the EU is slowly, but steadily and strongly, warming up to re industrialization, if he truly hits the EU, Canada, Mexico and the UK with tariffs like he says he will I could definitely see the USs industrial edge being lessened... Out of protectionism. Ofc I'm not an economist so this is more my intuition speaking, and well who knows what the future holds.
I'm also not an economist, so not entirely sure on how this will ultimately all shake out if he follows through with his tariff threats. Trump talks a lot of shit, most of which he never actually follows through with though, so yeah, who knows what the future holds. We will just have to wait and see, I guess. :/
I'm not surprised .
Sorry Canada. Some of us worked to try to defeat him.