The Tariff Thread

[calumniate]

US citizens just hit with mob-like 'protection fees'. Man this guy is corrupt

[Mr.Coffee]

Originally Posted by direwolf

Exactly. Even if we do get some kind of new deal signed, it might give us a much needed reprieve from the uncertainty and rhetoric for a little while, but there's nothing stopping the orange lunatic from breaking it again by declaring another stupid "border emergency" or some other dumb s***.

The only shred of hope regarding a new USMCA is that maybe it buys us some time until the mid-terms. And you can't even put much faith in that right now, as they will probably be rigged in the GOP's favour, or they might just cancel elections altogether through executive order. Not even sure if a President can do that, but just looking at the damage they've already caused, I wouldn't put it past them to try.

At this point I think the only way forward for Canada is to shore up our economy as much as we can, get rid of all inter-provincial trade barriers, diversify and find new markets for our products and strengthen existing trade relationships with other allies, get the necessary pipelines/infrastructure built as quickly as possible, and gradually wean ourselves off the U.S. completely. And just hope that they don't try to invade any time soon.

Why hasn’t Canada started building the G D pipeline and export facilities yet? What are we waiting for?

Gotta go “consult” (eyeroll). Here’s the consultation: “Do you want to be American or Canadian? We are building this”.

“But it takes 10 years and stuff!”

Why? No it doesn’t. Emergency order, expropriation and start building.

[Tron_fdc]

BC is falling in line.

"On Monday, Eby said he presented a proposal directly to outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to put levies on U.S. coal exports or even restrict them entirely. In 2021, the federal government promised to ban thermal coal exports by 2030."

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/briti...iffs-1.7480406

What's Smith up to right now? Signing backroom deals to turn Alberta over to the USA?

[Leondros]

Originally Posted by Tron_fdc

BC is falling in line.

"On Monday, Eby said he presented a proposal directly to outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to put levies on U.S. coal exports or even restrict them entirely. In 2021, the federal government promised to ban thermal coal exports by 2030."

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/briti...iffs-1.7480406

What's Smith up to right now? Signing backroom deals to turn Alberta over to the USA?

I suspect Smith is getting a bunch of pressure from the oil execs not to impact the diffs too much here with OPEC opening taps in April.

[iggy_oi]

Originally Posted by Mr.Coffee

Why hasn’t Canada started building the G D pipeline and export facilities yet? What are we waiting for?

Gotta go “consult” (eyeroll). Here’s the consultation: “Do you want to be American or Canadian? We are building this”.

“But it takes 10 years and stuff!”

Why? No it doesn’t. Emergency order, expropriation and start building.

I’d imagine it takes more than a month or so to put together designs and plans for a project of this scale no?

[indes]

Originally Posted by iggy_oi

I’d imagine it takes more than a month or so to put together designs and plans for a project of this scale no?

I would imagine it would take at least year to get the people together who could get a scope of work out the door to get RFPs out. Once that's done you've probably got at least year or so of detailed engineering to get going. At that point we could probably start looking at procurement and RFPs for contractors.

That should get us to the SK/MB border....

[edslunch]

Originally Posted by Mr.Coffee

Why hasn’t Canada started building the G D pipeline and export facilities yet? What are we waiting for?

Gotta go “consult” (eyeroll). Here’s the consultation: “Do you want to be American or Canadian? We are building this”.

“But it takes 10 years and stuff!”

Why? No it doesn’t. Emergency order, expropriation and start building.

I'd like to hear our leaders express the intent to build a pipeline, but isn't there a wee bit of planning required before expropriation and building?

[Torture]

Originally Posted by edslunch

I'd like to hear our leaders express the intent to build a pipeline, but isn't there a wee bit of planning required before expropriation and building?

Dig a hole, stick some pipe in it. What is there to plan?

[CroFlames]

It's just a long ass garden hose with a pump at one end and a on/off switch at the other.

[curves2000]

Considering the level of threat that Trump has been spewing on Canada and the fact that he won in November, we are going into the 6th month of serious economic pains that were predicted and our leaders across the country have done very little within their own control.

Between our own interprovincial trade barriers and a lack of competitive ability within Canadian business, what has been announced or changed that is meaningful? We can blame Trump and the US for a lot of things, but the lack of action from our elected officials is shocking from things that are well within our ability to do right away.

[iggy_oi]

Originally Posted by edslunch

I'd like to hear our leaders express the intent to build a pipeline, but isn't there a wee bit of planning required before expropriation and building?

Maybe if our premier was more focused on negotiating and putting pressure on the other provinces instead of kissing people like Ben Shapiro’s asses we’d be a little further ahead in the process.

[Manhattanboy]

Nm

[Slava]

Originally Posted by curves2000

Considering the level of threat that Trump has been spewing on Canada and the fact that he won in November, we are going into the 6th month of serious economic pains that were predicted and our leaders across the country have done very little within their own control.

Between our own interprovincial trade barriers and a lack of competitive ability within Canadian business, what has been announced or changed that is meaningful? We can blame Trump and the US for a lot of things, but the lack of action from our elected officials is shocking from things that are well within our ability to do right away.

No we're not. We're not seeing serious economic pains. We might be close to a recession. Inflation is not that high, interest rates are low and unemployment is not exceptionally high either. If you (or others) think that this is serious economic pain, if we see some real pain from the 25% tariff you're going to have a very rude awakening.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Slava

No we're not. We're not seeing serious economic pains. We might be close to a recession. Inflation is not that high, interest rates are low and unemployment is not exceptionally high either. If you (or others) think that this is serious economic pain, if we see some real pain from the 25% tariff you're going to have a very rude awakening.

When you constantly consume media that tells you Canada is broken, the economy is in shambles, and we are three steps from going full Venezuela, you may start to actually believe it.

[curves2000]

Originally Posted by Slava

No we're not. We're not seeing serious economic pains. We might be close to a recession. Inflation is not that high, interest rates are low and unemployment is not exceptionally high either. If you (or others) think that this is serious economic pain, if we see some real pain from the 25% tariff you're going to have a very rude awakening.

Things are definitely slower, more concerning and hectic. My previous post was poorly written in the sense that since November when Trump actually won the election and we knew that tariffs were an almost certainty, Canada, Canada's leaders and even the political opposition have done nothing within their control to increase competitiveness. We have had a long time to make serious changes but it's this small, micky mouse stuff that has come out thus far.

Considering the economic catastrophe that has materialized with this new administration now or in the near future, I don't see a sense in urgency for reform.

I understand the enormity of the situation, this is about as serious of an economic collapse as it gets. My concern with Canada and Canadian's is the level of stupidity isn't allowing them to move at breakneck speed for reform.

Canada, Canadian business, Canadian equity managers and our governments are just not ready for it.

[curves2000]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

When you constantly consume media that tells you Canada is broken, the economy is in shambles, and we are three steps from going full Venezuela, you may start to actually believe it.

You mean mainstream media? You mean your government officials? Bank of Canada Governor? What do you think your new PM keeps saying? The previous government was not as focused on economic issues as it needed to be. They dropped the ball and he is the main man to deal with a crisis of huge proportions. He's actually 100% correct on that which is why he won by a landslide recently.

Canada has been struggling for a long time. We aren't a smart business nation. We do natural resource extraction, some stable banking/insurance and we trade 80% of our exports with closest neighbor 80% of the time. Have a look at our top companies on our main equity index and tell me how many of those names are large, top players that really compete globally against their peers in international markets? Very few. Now go look other G8 nations and see how many names you recognize. A lot more.

What makes you think Canada can't be swallowed up economically? That is literally the policy the current government in Canada is afraid may happen.

[TrentCrimmIndependent]

The Liberals' ads are hitting much harder than the conservatives'.

When your candidate for PM echoes the same sentiments as Trump did with even the same choice of words, the bellyaching over carbon tax rings a little hollow by comparison. Especially given the context of everything currently going on.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by curves2000

You mean mainstream media? You mean your government officials? Bank of Canada Governor? What do you think your new PM keeps saying? The previous government was not as focused on economic issues as it needed to be. They dropped the ball and he is the main man to deal with a crisis of huge proportions. He's actually 100% correct on that which is why he won by a landslide recently.

Canada has been struggling for a long time. We aren't a smart business nation. We do natural resource extraction, some stable banking/insurance and we trade 80% of our exports with closest neighbor 80% of the time. Have a look at our top companies on our main equity index and tell me how many of those names are large, top players that really compete globally against their peers in international markets? Very few. Now go look other G8 nations and see how many names you recognize. A lot more.

What makes you think Canada can't be swallowed up economically? That is literally the policy the current government in Canada is afraid may happen.

None of those people are pointing to Canada being broken. That's just more narrative you have heard or crafted. All countries have economic challenges, self made and external. We haven't been struggling for a long time. And I'm not sure company name recognition on a stock index tells anyone anything about anything. Is that an official metric I can lookup and bet on Polymarket?

What do you mean by "swallowed up economically"? Is that a traditional fear, or something new because an insane orange goblin took over the worlds largest economy and is swinging it around erratically like a rotten fruit bat? That's not something anyone in Canada ever expected to prepare for.

The reality is the US is our biggest trading partner because that's the reality of capitalism. Proximity to market. I couldn't imagine the outrage if we had a willing US, and we chose to only trade with distant countries which meant limited quantities, higher costs and lower profits while the worlds biggest market sat un-served, because we wanted to be diverse. You can force this stuff if you really believe it, but that chases companies away and our GDP and productivity would dive. Yes, we may have to do that now, but it's utter silliness to pretend that these are things we should have forced into existence in the before times.

Here's a good summary of where we are at, and it sure doesn't look like the Canada has been broken for years description you are peddling. :
https://www.international.gc.ca/trad....aspx?lang=eng

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by curves2000

You mean mainstream media? .

this is where I stopped reading

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

this is where I stopped reading

Quick now, what's the opposite of "mainstream media" and why is it considered a reliable source?