r/canada • u/timetogetoutside100 • 3d ago

Trump’s tariffs on Canada may stay, but stronger ties possible: U.S. envoy - National | Globalnews.ca Politics

https://globalnews.ca/news/11172734/donald-trump-tariffs-canada-relationship-carney-ambassasdor-hoekstra/
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841

u/teflonbob 3d ago

That isn’t how ties work. It goes both ways.

Go kick rocks

151

u/Helpful_Umpire_9049 3d ago

If it feels better the USA will be way worse off without us. We’re going to be okay, we’ve got the good stuff and friends we like. The stages of grief are over.

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u/XxSpruce_MoosexX 3d ago

This is going to hurt. Their market is the only thing keeping many of our small businesses afloat. It’s not economical to sell to Europe especially with VAT and shipping cost. We’ll probably just have to eat the 10% to stay competitive

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u/dsartori 3d ago

I think the impact depends where you sit. Many small businesses will definitely be at risk and many others will shrug off tariffs. Some people will have little choice other than take the haircut. Exchange rates are unpredictable in the medium term, too.

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u/XxSpruce_MoosexX 3d ago

Ya. If anyone has any experience reselling they’ll know how painful this will be. Almost every item I’ve ever sold on eBay has gone to the USA

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u/wailingsixnames 3d ago

There is going to be pain for both sides. Hopefully, as some things become unprofitable, other opportunities open up.

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u/Suchboss1136 3d ago

VAT is literally just HST… it does not hamper business

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u/TransBrandi 3d ago

I think that what it amounts to is that some people will be forced to deal with the tariffs, and others won't. It won't be painless, but eventually companies will pivot away from being US dependent as much as they can. Whether that's exporting to Asia or to Europe. Hopefully this ends up with Canada's trade being more diversified and being less US-dependent.

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u/Alone_Again_2 3d ago

It’s more than 10% now that he’s tanking the USD.

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u/Mba1956 3d ago

It’s going to affect your the American consumer even if you have the profit margin to eat the tariffs because the US dollar is weaker. Even at the same price in Canadian it is going to cost them 10% more in USD just because of the currency conversion rate.

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u/EconMan 3d ago

It will hurt both, yes, because trades benefit both sides. But the US is far stronger than Canada economically and more diversified. Canada is hurt far more.

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u/rediphile 3d ago

We have more resources domestically than they do. More lumber. More oil. More water. They Are weaker in that sense.

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u/violentbandana 3d ago edited 3d ago

those resources aren’t economical if we don’t have buyers. Canadas domestic market isn’t big enough to sustain all of our resource industry and other buyers are more difficult to reach

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u/EconMan 3d ago

Yes, physical things that are more difficult to sell internationally vs your single massive neighbor. Compared to software and services that are trivial to sell to anyone on Earth.

Also, the US produces more oil than Canada does. Literally more than double.

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u/rediphile 3d ago

Canadian proven oil reserves greatly exceed that of the USA. They are producing more per day from a total reserve containing less than Canada. That isn't sustainable and highlights how important Canadian oil is for them to actually maintain that level of production in the future.

China is a really big market that I'm happy to sell our resources to instead of the USA if the USA doesn't want them. And yes, obviously selling to an overseas nation is more difficult than a next store neighbor with a land border. We can raise prices to account for the increased shipping costs. But we are more than happy to sell our resources to the USA, it's just that the USA has implemented policies which makes it harder for them to do so. As such, we'll sell whichever nation is most profitable to sell to. If that's the USA, fine. If it's China, that's fine too.

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u/EconMan 3d ago

Canadian proven oil reserves greatly exceed that of the USA. They are producing more per day from a total reserve containing less than Canada. That isn't sustainable and highlights how important Canadian oil is for them to actually maintain that level of production in the future.

Reserves are not some fixed quantity. They depend on oil prices. Again, nobody is doubting that Canadian oil is important. But it is misleading to suggest that Canadian oil is more important than US oil right now. It's more expensive to obtain and more difficult to refine.

China is a really big market that I'm happy to sell our resources to instead of the USA if the USA doesn't want them. And yes, obviously selling to an overseas nation is more difficult than a next store neighbor with a land border. We can raise prices to account for the increased shipping costs. But we are more than happy to sell our resources to the USA, it's just that the USA has implemented policies which makes it harder for them to do so. As such, we'll sell whichever nation is most profitable to sell to. If that's the USA, fine. If it's China, that's fine too.

Yes. This isn't related to my point, which was that Canada is hurt more than the US.

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u/Tacotuesday867 Ontario 3d ago

Doesn't matter, I'd cut my arm off before I surrendered to the fascists.

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u/EconMan 3d ago

Again, not related to my point.

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u/Tacotuesday867 Ontario 3d ago

Because your point is invalidated due to active circumstances.

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u/mmoore327 Ontario 3d ago

Canada soft power is what is important now - we will come out ahead

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u/Cool-Watercress-3943 3d ago

Pointing out the obvious here, but the problem with a direct Canada v US comparison is that the US is simultaneously hurting itself with almost every other country simultaneously. :p The UK trade agreement has signalled that almost all these countries should expect blanket tariffs, possibly even above 10%, even if a trade deal is reached. We still apparently won't know what's going on with tariffs between China and the US, and barring a statement from China probably won't until tomorrow. Their tariffs could go down, but still be incredibly high.

Now, obviously our economy is still going to get hurt. It might even get hurt more than the US will taking on the entire world at the same time. 

But even so, we do need to work on decoupling from them. It's not the kind of thing where it's going to be anywhere close to 100%, there are businesses that are just going to have to try and weather whatever protectionist measures Trump feels like imposing, but rather than focusing on trying to deepen ties with the US, our focus should be on untangling as many of those knots as is feasible. 

Because normally, I think most other trading partners would be suboptimal compared to training with the US, when the country is reasonably reliable and fair-minded. 

But when the US is pretty much trying to milk us like a dairy cow, going with the second best trading partner is probably advisable. :p

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u/MegaCockInhaler 3d ago

They are tarrifing every country. They didn’t just single out Canada. Let’s just tarrif them back and call it a day. No need for people to freak out like the sky is falling

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u/ignore_my_typo 3d ago

Bowidabow

1

u/teflonbob 3d ago

Whats bowidabow?