For its retaliation, Canada has went through serious work to select specific products and industries to impose tariffs on that will have the maximum political impact on the US while minimizing damage to Canadians.
Meanwhile Trump just went 25 percent on everything expect for energy with no additional thought given. He looks like a complete amateur.
Not doing the full 25% on energy shows that the US can’t afford to do so. All Canada needs to do is make energy more expensive for the US. Top it up till 25%.
Yes, please do it. Since everyone of these conservatives bitched so much about fuel prices the entire time, it would be so freaking poetic. It’s not like the US can just ramp up gasoline production because refineries cost billions and take years to get going.
Making a specific country pay more for exports is the nuclear option. And frankly, it’s well deserved at this point. With all the “jokes” about
annexingmaking Canada into the 51st state, there’s more than enough justification for it.
From the man that wrote The Art of the Deal.
The man who loaned his name and a few quotes to a ghost writer, for the book The Art of the Deal.
This guy didn’t write anything longer than a tweet.
Ah, thanks. Doesn’t surprise me and I should have thought of that.
Lest we remember the last time this was done.
“Trade wars are good, and easy to win.”
🙄
What industries will be hit? Carmakers, food producers and construction — all of which rely heavily on cross-border trade — are among the industries likely to be worst affected. The US auto industry, particularly the traditional “Big Three” of Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, spread manufacturing over all three countries on the continent. US automotive suppliers also make goods in Mexico, from seats to axles. About 16 per cent of the value of a US-made car is derived from work done in Mexico or Canada. Carmakers with operations in Mexico and Canada will be faced with either absorbing the cost or raising prices for consumers. The import tax could give a competitive boost to South Korean and Japanese carmakers selling in the US market, said Daniel Roeska, an analyst at Bernstein. Food imports from both Canada and Mexico will be heavily affected. The US imported more than $45bn in agricultural products from Mexico in 2023, according to the US agriculture department, including strawberries, raspberries, tomatoes and beef. Another $40bn came from Canada, including beef, pork, grains, potatoes and canola. Construction materials will also face pressure, with about a third of softwood lumber used in the US imported from Canada. Canada and Mexico combined also account for over a fifth of US cement imports. “Much of the cost increase caused by tariffs will be passed on to US consumers,” said James Knightley, chief international economist at ING.
What was left out? The Canadian oil industry was spared the worst of Trump’s tariffs, being carved out for a 10 per cent levy, as the White House sought to limit the inflationary impact on US motorists. The US relies heavily on crude imports to feed its refineries, with about 40 per cent of the crude refined in the country coming from abroad — of that, 60 per cent comes from Canada and 11 per cent from Mexico. A significant rise in the cost of crude imports would be felt at the pump. Chet Thompson, head of the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, a refining industry group, said he hoped a deal was “quickly reached” to end all tariffs on the industry “before consumers feel the impact”. Saturday’s announcement made no mention of the EU, but Trump said the previous day he “absolutely” planned to target the bloc with new levies in the future. “We’ll be doing something very substantial with the European Union,” he said.
In additional to all this, there’s the middle industry of shipping everything. Fuel prices will affect the cost of things, and having less things moved between the US and other countries because of the increases will impact shipping companies in general. Amazing how a simple action can potentially break a whole economy.
