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- cross-posted to:
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I seem to remember that what the EU did to good effect last time this asshat was president was to place extremely directed tariffs/taxes on specific goods from Trump-friendly areas. Essentially saying “we’re going to toll oranges from this specific county in that specific swing state in order to drive a couple specific producers out of business”, and then did that across the country. The advantage being that WTO agreements allow you to answer tariffs dollar-for-dollar, so you can respond to wide-reaching tolls that amount to X USD (e.g. tolls on the entire European aluminium industry) with extremely hard-hitting tolls on very specific producers.
We should be doing that again. Don’t touch the wider American population, but put all our weight into hitting hard against cornerstone businesses in pro-trump counties. Make them regret voting this guy in thinking it would better their economy.
Joke’s on you orange pile of dung! I got me a yearly supply of avocados from Mexico! I could afford 5!
If I eat them 1 gram per day and I freeze dry them, I should have avocado for life!
The EU has a trade deal with Canada already, perhaps there is a scope for further improvement?
Maybe send some of it via Greenland. Gotta be cheaper than his stupid tariffs.
“Via Greenland” makes no sense. The trouble with Canada-Europe trade is that Canada unfortunately lacks a good port on its east coast (certainly nothing comparable to Vancouver in the west). For the foreseeable future, if the trade dispute with the US drags on, Canada’s best bet is to expand its trade with Asia.
Most ships can actually go up the St Lawrence to the port of Montreal easily, and even further on the seaway.
Source: my buddy’s brother is a unionized commercial navigator.
Is Halifax not a good port?
Good location, limited infrastructure. They’d need to build a full commercial cargo port, and probably expand the oil/gas facility a lot.
I was in Halifax for the first time this summer. I guess looking back it’s pretty crowded already. I saw some huge ships and parking lots unloading cars so I guess they’re already busy with that. I’m going to Montreal on March break, I’ll be sure to pay attention to their shipping arrangements. They’re more of a container port I think?
I live right next to the port of Montréal, so I can provide info if you want. But I know nothing about ports. All I can say is that there’s a lot of containers, big round things (to store oil?), and various industry including sugar, beer, some battery-related chemistry, among other things.
There’s another port, also close to where I live, that’s actually in another city. But it seems to be a city mostly for industry. It has only a mere 2000 inhabitants, and a lot of industry, especially oil. The city has the uninspiring name of “Montréal-est”.
Sounds like a good investment imo
Given current politics, maybe. It’s a big expenditure that could go bankrupt if the current political insanity gets shut down. I think if the government put some guarantees of future support in case that happens it would instantly be a worth while project. Which probably depends on selling it as a national security and resilience issue.
Damn it Canada! Tit for tat tariffs are not the answer.
Respond for sure, but now you’re taking money out of your own citizens pockets to spite him. That idiotic.
Woah man, slow up with all the downvotes. This is a suggestion to think strategically instead of doing a reactionary show to “look strong”. The reactionary show will fuck up small business and the majority of Canadians. Well thought out tariffs and other targeted measures will be more effective.
Thank you, that was exactly my intension.
However, I think that comment is already dead.
Tarrifs are simple, easy, and can be implemented immediately by the Prime Minister alone. All the other things listed in that comment are fine ideas, but require parliment pass laws, which is going to take time since we’re approaching an election. I don’t think it’s appropriate to wait months before even starting the debate in parliment about what we should do.
There’s also no guarantee any of those ideas would even pass into law. I doubt many politicians are keen on tearing up patent and copyright protection so Canadian companies can rip off American innovations.
So what do you suggest should be done instead?
I must admit that I’m curious if there are any goods from Canada that USA depends on. It could be hilarious if Canada chose to tax EXPORTS of such goods. Increasing US prices even more. Problem is I don’t think there is much to do that on if any at all.
But an American lumber crisis like 2021 caused by Canadian export taxes undermining the entire US real estate market could be fun. 😋
Maybe Canada could tax oils exports, as USA despite being the biggest producer in the world, is still dependent on huge oil Imports.Examine CUSMA and do the opposite of what the US wanted…
Going after US tech is an obvious move. Digital services taxes, etc.
I feel like Canada being only 1/10th of the US’s population, it doesn’t matter much. It would be much better to hurt them with something fundamental to other parts of the economy, like lumber, oil, parts…
Some others have ideas.
That was a good read, thanks.
That post by Merc has a lot of good ideas, when it comes to it, USA is making a lot more money on services, that could be freely copied, while USA is way more dependent on actual goods.
In such a trade war, I think USA would surely lose.
I doubt it would ever happen, but they could redistribute the money from those tariffs back to citizens. It would be a net positive for people who choose to get goods made locally or imported from friendly nations.
Would you like to turn the other cheek?
Self harm isn’t an effective strategy. Do something that actually hurts the US.
Selective tariffs that impact exports from swing states without increasing the prices too much is an effective strategy. The EU already used it successfully against the US a few times (basically every republican president needed it as a warning shot)
YES. Can we listen to this? We do have complications of not being close to other trading partners, but this is a more reasoned approach that has worked.
