Canada will keep in place its retaliatory tariffs against US-made products as long as President Donald Trump persists with a trade war, said Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister-designate.
Canada will keep in place its retaliatory tariffs against US-made products as long as President Donald Trump persists with a trade war, said Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister-designate.
But everybody said about Trumps tariffs, that the American people will have to pay them. Can somebody explain why Canada keeping the Tariffs is good then? Aren’t it the Canadian people paying for them?
Honest question btw, I’m not trying to be snarky. I’m just a bit slow sometimes.
Edit: Thanks for the explanations, I think I have a better understanding now. Tariffs hurt the consumer and the foreign industrie, but Canadians are rdy to pay that price for their sovereignity.
The Canadian Tariffs are targeted at certain goods that Canada knows it can ramp up production internally, or source from Europe/Asia. they are not broad tariffs on everything. It will cost some some, but there has been alot of thought to maximize pressure on American business while minimizing pressure on Canadian consumer.
You are correct, tariffs hurt everyone. The direct cost is paid by the importer not the exporter. Part of the reaction-turned propaganda point about the US is that American people will bear the brunt of the tariffs. This is because Trump/MAGA framed tariffs as a tax that other countries would pay the direct cost of, not the Americans importing the goods.
This led to a downplaying of how it would negatively affect the foreign industries exporting the goods, and apply political pressure on those countries. This is how tariffs usually work, you put tariffs on certain goods to apply economic/political pressure towards specific goals, e.g. tariffs on Chinese EVs to protect NA auto industry. This still hurts NA consumers in that they don’t have access to cheap Chinese EVs, but gives NA auto a chance to catch up. Tariffs are a normal economic tool that can help with bringing industry back into your country, but it’s a tricky balance.
Canada is under no illusions that we will have to pay tariffs on imported American goods. There’s also a nationalist reaction to boycott American goods to an extent for starting this trade war, but Canadians will still hurt. The alternative would be to take it and submit to America’s whims, which is not a real option.
This trade war is not within the norms of standard economic diplomacy/negotiation though, it’s just unhinged chaos. IMO the chaos is the point, giving cover for Trump&friends to solidify complete control as they turn the US into an authoritarian regime and helps to bring American industries to heel under their rule.
I don’t think they’re saying it’s good economics and yes, for the most part, we understand how these tariffs will affect us.
But there’s a lot of anger at Trump here. Booing the American national anthem is not something we do lightly. I haven’t seen people this united for a common cause for a long time. I regularly see people checking labels at grocery stores to avoid buying American even if we have to pay more.
We know a recession is likely for both countries and we’ll be hit harder by it. It’s a small price to pay for our sovereignty.
This is only marginally related but I just want to tell someone. I bought a more expensive Canadian bag of chocolate chips to make cookies today and holy smokes, they were immensely better than the other ones I usually buy. Way worth the extra 90c or whatever it was.
Hopefully this will all lead to us being more self reliant and having easier access to the awesome things that are already produced here. I’m also excited about more local beer in the liquor stores.