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FM
Former Member

WASHINGTON – Canada is imposing dollar-for-dollar tariff “countermeasures” on up to $16.6 billion worth of U.S. imports in response to the American decision to make good on its threat of similar tariffs against Canadian-made steel and aluminum.

The tariffs, which apply to a long list of U.S. products that includes everything from flat-rolled steel to playing cards and felt-tipped pens, will go into effect July 1, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland told a news conference Thursday.
“This is $16.6 billion of retaliation,” Freeland said.

READ MORE: From pork to jeans — countries threaten tariff retaliation for U.S. steel, aluminum duties

“This is the strongest trade action Canada has taken in the post-war era. This is a very strong response, it is a proportionate response, it is perfectly reciprocal. This is a very strong Canadian action in response to a very bad U.S. decision.”

Freeland made the announcement alongside Prime Minister Justin Trudeau following word from the White House that the U.S. will slap tariffs on Canadian, Mexican and European Union steel and aluminium as of midnight Thursday night.

WATCH: ‘No sign of common sense’ in decision to impose tarrifs, Trudeau says

She called the U.S. measures illegal and counterproductive, and both she and Trudeau expressed how hard it is to imagine how Canada could ever be a national-security threat to an ally as close and important as the United States.

“That Canada could be considered a national-security threat to the United States is inconceivable,” said Trudeau, adding that the people of the U.S. are not Canada’s target , and that the federal government would far prefer that its hand not be forced.

Canada, Mexico and Europe had been exempted from import duties of 25 per cent on steel and 10 per cent on aluminum when they were first imposed in March, but those exemptions will expire as scheduled on Friday.

Replies sorted oldest to newest

It’s clear Trump wanted some sunset rule in NAFTA but Canada said no.  This matter will be resolved.  Canada nice boy needs to play ball.  He dealing with a Super Power this side!

We love Canada, so does Trump.  Canadians support Trump!

Baseman
cain posted:

Trump is bringing pain and suffering to the American people with this nonsense. Next week at the G6+1 summit I hope none of the leaders hold back on digging to the fool. 

No pain no gain. Who ever said making America Great Again will be easy!

Baseman
cain posted:
Baseman posted:

...  Canadians support Trump!

Say what? Coming from one who worships that fool I guess lies should be expected.

I know people in Canada who agree with him but to avoid being terrorized by anti- Trumpsters, they remain silent, the silent majority, just like we have here in the USA!

Say that!!!!!

Baseman
Last edited by Baseman
Baseman posted:
cain posted:
Baseman posted:

...  Canadians support Trump!

Say what? Coming from one who worships that fool I guess lies should be expected.

I know people in Canada who agree with him but to avoid being terrorized by anti- Trumpsters, they remain silent, the silent majority, just like we have here in the USA!

Say that!!!!!

Same shit different days, nothing new from the empty barrel.

K

This is all about Trump keeping his election promises. He promised to bring balance and fairness to trade policies. The American steel industry was decimated by cheap steel being dumped into America.

This will all sort itself out. Canada lashed back by imposing it's own tariffs.

Canada and the USA are just positioning themselves before major negotiations, the dust will eventually settle and trade relations will normalize.

People need not stress over this positioning.

FM
Baseman posted:
cain posted:
Baseman posted:

...  Canadians support Trump!

Say what? Coming from one who worships that fool I guess lies should be expected.

I know people in Canada who agree with him but to avoid being terrorized by anti- Trumpsters, they remain silent, the silent majority, just like we have here in the USA!

Say that!!!!!

Sheer Bullshit, you liar!

cain
Last edited by cain
yuji22 posted:

This is all about Trump keeping his election promises. He promised to bring balance and fairness to trade policies. The American steel industry was decimated by cheap steel being dumped into America.

This will all sort itself out. Canada lashed back by imposing it's own tariffs.

Canada and the USA are just positioning themselves before major negotiations, the dust will eventually settle and trade relations will normalize.

People need not stress over this positioning.

Is he scared of China??

K
cain posted:
Baseman posted:
cain posted:
Baseman posted:

...  Canadians support Trump!

Say what? Coming from one who worships that fool I guess lies should be expected.

I know people in Canada who agree with him but to avoid being terrorized by anti- Trumpsters, they remain silent, the silent majority, just like we have here in the USA!

Say that!!!!!

Sheer Bullshit, you liar!

You are an arrogant dumb ass to ass-ume you speak for all the people of Canada.  You don't...I have family who agree with many of his policies.

So STFU and go collect your moose droppings!

Baseman
Baseman posted:
cain posted:
Baseman posted:
cain posted:
Baseman posted:

...  Canadians support Trump!

Say what? Coming from one who worships that fool I guess lies should be expected.

I know people in Canada who agree with him but to avoid being terrorized by anti- Trumpsters, they remain silent, the silent majority, just like we have here in the USA!

Say that!!!!!

Sheer Bullshit, you liar!

You are an arrogant dumb ass to ass-ume you speak for all the people of Canada.  You don't...I have family who agree with many of his policies.

So STFU and go collect your moose droppings!

And your ignorant rass know what Canadians think right. You are a friken liar..admit it. Your family (whom you brought into this conversation) are probably just as morally bankrupt as you. 

cain
Last edited by cain
yuji22 posted:

Ouch, dat will teach the cuss bird Cain a lesson. He is a bit dull and thinks that everyone at GNI should follow his opinions. I have news for him, we are not Dull.

You are way beyond dull you S.steamed piece of shit. Maybe you should go over and hang out with Baseless.

Turds who think they're better can flock off together.

cain
Last edited by cain

That little socialist boy Trudeau better think again if he believes he can take on the big Dawg USA.  The trade balance is heavily favoured to the US.  Canada depends on US industry in manufacturing, banking, retail, etc.  The one big company Canada had going for them was Tim Horton's and an American company bought it over.  

Bibi Haniffa
Bibi Haniffa posted:

That little socialist boy Trudeau better think again if he believes he can take on the big Dawg USA.  The trade balance is heavily favoured to the US.  Canada depends on US industry in manufacturing, banking, retail, etc.  The one big company Canada had going for them was Tim Horton's and an American company bought it over.  

unedifying and childish . . . yujiesque

FM
cain posted:
Leonora posted:

I have a headache and will hit the sack. Y'all cussing up.

You missing the best part.

Glad the post with the F words is gone.  Someone probably spiked the dude's drink. 

FM
Bibi Haniffa posted:

That little socialist boy Trudeau better think again if he believes he can take on the big Dawg USA.  The trade balance is heavily favoured to the US.  Canada depends on US industry in manufacturing, banking, retail, etc.  The one big company Canada had going for them was Tim Horton's and an American company bought it over.  

Really!!  Do you think that's all Canada USD 1.3 Trillion GDP is about?  Read below:

  • 13.04 Real estate and rental and leasing
  • 10.36 Manufacturing.
  • 08.14 Mining, quarrying and oil or gas extraction.
  • 07.10 Finance and insurance.
  • 06.69 Health care and social assistance.
  • 06.33 Public administration.


Yea yea, you liking all Cain's dumb-ass comments against my Pro-Trump's position, but you and I know it's the same with you/yours!  You should try ONCE not being such a hypocrite!

Baseman
cain posted:
Baseman posted:
cain posted:
Baseman posted:
cain posted:
Baseman posted:

...  Canadians support Trump!

Say what? Coming from one who worships that fool I guess lies should be expected.

I know people in Canada who agree with him but to avoid being terrorized by anti- Trumpsters, they remain silent, the silent majority, just like we have here in the USA!

Say that!!!!!

Sheer Bullshit, you liar!

You are an arrogant dumb ass to ass-ume you speak for all the people of Canada.  You don't...I have family who agree with many of his policies.

So STFU and go collect your moose droppings!

And your ignorant rass know what Canadians think right. You are a friken liar..admit it. Your family (whom you brought into this conversation) are probably just as morally bankrupt as you. 

You are a dumb ass to believe the Canadians hold a monolithic viewpoint on anything, including Trump!

Now go run along and pick up your moose dropping and feel good!

Baseman

Is about y’all folks from up north buckle up and stop taking advantage of a liberal American policy that allows others a free ride into the US economy. 

There needs to be free trade.

The American economy will not survive global competition if it caters to the development of other economies, as the US has liberally done since WW2....if anything the US should allow this kind of unfairness with Less Developed Countries like Guyana.

V
VishMahabir posted:

Is about y’all folks from up north buckle up and stop taking advantage of a liberal American policy that allows others a free ride into the US economy. 

There needs to be free trade.

The American economy will not survive global competition if it caters to the development of other economies, as the US has liberally done since WW2....if anything the US should allow this kind of unfairness with Less Developed Countries like Guyana.

You should have done your research before asking Canadian to “knuckle “ up .

read here..

I'm pretty well pissed off': Strategic or not, here's how Trump's tariffs on U.S. allies could backfire

Nobody wins in a trade war, economists warn — and that includes Trump's rural farm voters

 
Blake Hurst owns a farm in northwest Missouri that has 6,000 acres of corn and soybeans. Much of the crop is exported and retaliatory measures taken in the wake of Donald Trump's new steel and aluminum tariffs will likely harm his bottom line. (Lyndsay Duncombe/CBC)

Blake Hurst can't help but laugh. The future of his family farm in northwest Missouri looks that grim.

"It's gonna be painful," he said, hours before new tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum kicked in at midnight on Friday. "What else you gonna do?"

Hurst's first concerns were about how U.S. President Donald Trump's threats to pull out of the North American Free Trade Agreement might further imperil his livelihood.

Then came Trump's proclamation last Marchthat he would impose sweeping tariffs — 25 per cent on foreign steel and 10 per cent on foreign aluminum — in a move seen as taking aim at China for dumping cheap metal into the U.S. market.

For a while, at least, there was some reprieve. The European Union, Canada and Mexico were exempt from the tariffs, keeping Hurst hopeful the foreign economies he relies on wouldn't retaliate with punishing duties against the U.S.

 
Most of Hurst's corn crop is exported to Mexico.(Lyndsay Duncombe/CBC)

No such luck.

Mexico, Europe and Canada announced retaliatory tariffs on Thursday after the U.S. moved to slap on new tariffs on steel and aluminum, escalating a trade dispute between the Americans and their top trading partners.

Hurst, 61, sighed on the phone while speaking to CBC News.

"Our three biggest markets for farm exports are Canada, Mexico and China," he said. "For our soybeans, by far the biggest is China. And a lot of our corn goes to Mexico."

'National security' justification

In justifying the tariffs in March, Trump invoked "national security," reasoning that the protection of American aluminum and steel was "vital" for "the bedrock of our defence industrial base."

Critics heard a flimsy pretext for imposing metal tariffs, arguing Trump was merely exploiting a loophole in World Trade Organization rules that allows trade restrictions for the purposes of national security.

 
A worker uses a grinder on a piece of steel at a factory in Burnaby, B.C. The U.S. has slapped tariffs of 25 per cent on imported steel from Canada and 10 per cent on imported aluminum. (Darryl Dyck/Canadian Press)

Ahead of the midterm elections coming in November, Trump could also be targeting a bloc of anti-free trade voters championing protectionism.

"Most economists would say tariffs, generally, are not a good idea because of the deadweight loss they impose and the threats of retaliations," said Saumitra Jha, who lectures on political economy at Stanford University.

"This might be very beneficial for some key constituencies and electoral districts, but you're talking about very specific producers and commodities benefiting."

If there is a political rationale, many economists believe it's that Trump is playing to the farm vote, as well as an industrial manufacturing base. Pennsylvania steelworkers who voted for Trump might be pleased if they believe the president is standing up for them against cheap foreign steel flooding the domestic market.

"It's a small group, relative to the general problem of tariffs, retaliations, downstream things and costs of everything going up," Jha said.

Why Trump would go after Canada, the No. 1 exporter of steel and aluminum to the U.S., isn't obvious.

Douglas Porter, chief economist at the Bank of Montreal, told the Los Angeles Times in March that Canada was "flabbergasted" to be portrayed as "trade villains," considering Canada supplied $7 billion of aluminum and $4 billion of steel to the U.S. in 2017.

 
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland on Thursday announced dollar-for-dollar tariff 'countermeasures' on up to $16.6 billion worth of U.S. imports. (Patrick Doyle/Canadian Press)

For its part, the American Farm Bureau Federation — which bills itself as the "voice of agriculture" — fears a trade dispute. More than 75 per cent of the rural farm belt voted for Trump in 2016, according to the Washington Post.

Farmers like Hurst, who is the president of the Missouri Farm Bureau, backed Trump then. But Hurst said his support is "shakier" now than it was six months ago.

"I'm pretty well pissed off. Economically, this is almost certain to backfire. But I'm not totally sure it's not going to be politically popular."

Beijing has warned it may slap 25 per cent on soybean imports, which would severely harm Hurst's business.

Ottawa's countermeasures for now will be dollar-for-dollar on steel and aluminum from the States, as well as duties on American maple syrup, soy sauce, coffee and other products.

China had already raised import duties on U.S. pork, tailored to strike pork producers in Trump-favouring red states such as North Carolina and Indiana.

 
Four generations of the Hurst family have farmed in northwest Missouri. Hurst was first worried about NAFTA but is now concerned about the newly announced tariffs. (Lyndsay Duncombe/CBC)

Dave Salmonsen, the Farm Bureau's senior director for congressional relations, scanned Canada's new tariffs list. Reciting it aloud Thursday, he stopped on another political pressure point for Trump.

"Yogurt, coffee, prepared meats, candies … whiskies!" he exclaimed. "Oh boy, Kentucky and Tennessee won't like that at all."

Kentucky is the home state of Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has warned about a "slippery slope" of trade swipes in retaliation for Trump's steel and aluminum tariffs.

Orange juice is also on Canada's duties list, which could potentially negatively impact swing-state Florida, won by Trump in 2016.

European leaders have suggested cranberries and Harley Davidson motorcycles might be subject to higher duties. Both are major products from Wisconsin, the home state of Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan.

In March, a group of 107 House Republicans urged Trump to reconsider the sweeping tariffs, arguing they would hurt American jobs.

 
U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross announced Thursday that an exemption for Canadian, Mexican and European Union steel and aluminum would end at midnight, as scheduled. (Eric Thayer/Reuters)

Even so, supporters of the tariffs, like Mike Bless, CEO of the largest U.S. aluminum producer, Century Aluminum, are confident they'll win out.

"President Trump's decisive action protects thousands of American aluminum workers and puts U.S. national security first," Bless said in an email statement, adding his industry is on track to hike production by 60 per cent by year's end.

'You lose more jobs than you gain'

When the tariffs were first announced, Bless said he expected to hire 300 workers.

To Ben Zycher, a resident scholar at the Washington think-tank the American Enterprise Institute, those benefits look to be short-sighted.

"There's no question you lose more jobs than you gain," he said. "That's simply the reality of any kind of protectionist move. Protectionism makes the economy smaller by imposing artificial costs."

Zycher noted it's possible the political dynamics are such that "the jobs gained are more important politically to the Trump administration" than jobs lost in other sectors.

Trump's national security rationale isn't convincing to Zycher. In fact, he said, "the steel tariffs are likely to harm other sectors that are also important for national security."

FM

Trump wants to reopen and modify some aspects of existing international agreements.  Everyone just waves the agreements and say we already have a deal.  He is using the powers in his hands to force partners to the negotiating table.  

It is nothing more to it than that.  There is an entire group of economists who have this thinking.  The partners need to work with him, give here take there and it will all blow over and settle down.  

Trump is doing nothing different than what he has said for years and during the campaign.  Why are people surprised.   

 

Baseman
Last edited by Baseman
Nehru posted:

TRUMP IS A SKONT, PLAIN AND SIMPLE!!MY PENSION IS SECURE BUT i FEAR FOR MY kIDS. THIS FRIGGIN idiot WILL BRING THIS COUNTRY TO IT KNEES!!!

Don't worry about your kids.  They will be fine.  They are college educated, hard working, and well trained.  Now about that pension fund.  You got to be getting some good returns so you should be happy.

Bibi Haniffa

No market it secured. If these countries are going elsewhere for purchases, then they have been ripping off American producers. Most likely will buy at higher prices. All of this shows that the whole world loves to sell to America. Maybe, because dey cheaper than China and India.

S
seignet posted:

No market it secured. If these countries are going elsewhere for purchases, then they have been ripping off American producers. Most likely will buy at higher prices. All of this shows that the whole world loves to sell to America. Maybe, because dey cheaper than China and India.

The world loved selling to America because they were seen as a powerful leader nation that was respected...not so now.

Don't be surprised if by some sheer con job this "cartoon" stays in power, we hear talk of states asking for separation. There are States already going against many of the "Cartoon's" stupid ideas.

cain
Last edited by cain

I think you think that Trump acts on his own. The man has hawks and doves around him.

NAFTA was a bad deal with Mexico getting the better end of it. Canada lost considerably. Trump will end it because Americans and Canadians loose too much. Doan surprise me if the Mexican mafioli get the bundle of money the poor mexican labourer sweats for. 

S
cain posted:

 

The world loved selling to America because they were seen as a powerful leader nation that was respected...not so now.

Don't be surprised if by some sheer con job this "cartoon" stays in power, we hear talk of states asking for separation. There are States already going against many of the "Cartoon's" stupid ideas.

The world loves selling to America because we are the most open, most lucrative, by far single largest consumer economy (17 trillion x 70%), single currency/single language market on planet earth.  

This has nothing to do with Trump.  All Trump is saying, give us a fair deal on the other side of the trade.

And he is correct!

Baseman

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