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#tariffs

215 posts131 participants11 posts today

Canada is back in fashion:

"Canada is the second-largest country by land mass, with the world’s longest coastline. It is bookended by the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, making it ideally situated for global trade.

Marko Papic, chief strategist at BCA Research, also reckons Canada could be better off in a warmer world. “Global warming could increase agricultural yields, open up large swaths of the country to mineral exploration, and allow for new trade routes through the Arctic,” he said.

The country is energy independent, with the world’s largest deposits of high-grade uranium and the third-largest proven oil reserves. It is also the fifth-largest producer of natural gas.

Canada boasts a huge supply of other commodities too, including the largest potash reserves (used to make fertiliser), over one-third of the world’s certified forests and a fifth of the planet’s surface freshwater. Plus, it has an abundance of cobalt, graphite, lithium and other rare earth elements, which are used in renewable technologies.

“Canada absolutely has potential to be a global superpower,” added Papic. But the nation has lacked the visionary leadership and policy framework to capitalise on its advantages.

US President Donald Trump’s tariff threat has, however, shifted the Overton window. There is now a growing political consensus to unlock Canada’s economic potential and reduce its dependence on exports to its southern neighbour. That task will fall to either Prime Minister Mark Carney or opposition leader Pierre Poilievre following an election this year.

Canada’s GDP has long trailed its G7 peers, ranking 16th globally in purchasing power parity terms. A country with its geography could clearly generate higher output. To do so, the Canadian economy needs to become more efficient, raise investment and attract more high-skilled workers. Here’s how."

ft.com/content/d4813838-66b2-4

#Canada#USA#Trump
Replied in thread

@clumbake @nek @pluralistic
“With Trump imposing #tariffs on US trading partners, there is now zero reason to keep those laws on the books…

“The first country that perfects the universal car diagnosing tool will sell one to every mechanic in the world – along with subscriptions that keep up with new cars and new manufacturer software updates. That country could have the relationship to car repairs that Finland had to mobile phones for a decade
#TeslaTakedown

"Do you think, if Biden was like “we’re going to cause a recession but after that we’ll have a golden age,” that the WaPo would say “oh he’s just not explaining his plan very well?"
-W Stancil

"Trump econ advisor Hassett warns of more uncertainty over tariffs."

But he predicted that things will clear up when the Trump admin implements its plan to IMPOSE "RECIPROCAL #TARIFFS“.
Watch⬇️
Trump & Bessent: declined to rule out the possibility of a #recession.
#Idiocracy #USPol
cnbc.com/2025/03/17/trump-hass

#TradeWar Retaliation Will Hit #Trump Voters Hardest

As Trump imposes #tariffs on products from countries around the world, foreign govts are answering back w/tariffs of their own.

#China has targeted corn farmers & carmakers. #Canada has put tariffs on poultry plants & A/C manufacturers, while #Europe will hit American steel mills & slaughter houses.

#economy #USpol
nytimes.com/interactive/2025/0

The New York Times · Maps: Where Trump Voter Jobs Will Be Hit by TariffsBy Lazaro Gamio
Replied in thread

"WaPo reported that over 5 million Americans work in industries that could be impacted by retaliatory tariffs from China and Canada that just went into effect, and the vast majority of them live in counties that voted for Trump. New tariffs from those two countries primarily target the agricultural, manufacturing and energy sectors."

~ Ron Filipkowski

#Musk #Trump #FederalGovernment #NOAA #TaxCuts #billionaires #EconomicElites #tariffs #agriculture #industry
/9

meidasplus.com/p/this-weekend-

Meidas+ · This Weekend in Politics, Bulletin 92By Ron Filipkowski

People of #Europe!
We must fight with #American social media. Not only because there are from the #USA which is no longer a reliable ally, but also because they made SUCH a massive monopoly in this aspect. We must propagate our #European #Fediverse. Spread the word! Don’t use their tech! Use what is ours and secure. Don’t sell data across the Atlantic
#EU #BuyFromEU #BuyFromEurope #Mastodon #PeerTube #Lemmy #Pixelfed #BoycottUSA #BoycottAmerica #BoycottUS #Trump #Tariffs #Musk #ViveLaEueope

Continued thread

I don't want to go *too* far in praising this article, because there are still a large number of problems with the way it minimizes the danger of Trump literally annexing Canada, but its existence demonstrates that at least one US media outlet (NBC) understands that Trump is not joking, or playing the angles here, and is in fact dead serious about taking over Canada:

nbcnews.com/politics/donald-tr

Trump's quest to conquer Canada is confusing everyone

"Speaking with reporters in the Oval Office, Trump first mentioned his love for Canadians, including his “many friends” like hockey legend Wayne Gretzky. Then he riffed about how Canada shouldn’t exist as a sovereign country before getting to what has increasingly become a fixation: wholesale annexation of Canada as a U.S. state.

"Canada only works as a state," Trump said Thursday. "We don’t need anything they have. As a state, it would be one of the great states anywhere. This would be the most incredible country, visually. If you look at a map, they drew an artificial line right through it, between Canada and the U.S. Just a straight, artificial line. Somebody did it a long time ago, many many decades ago. Makes no sense. It’s so perfect as a great and cherished state."

"But why should we subsidize another country for $200 billion?" Trump continued, adding, "And again, we don’t need their lumber, we don’t need their energy. We have more than they do. We don’t need anything. We don’t need their cars. I’d much rather make the cars here. And there’s not a thing that we need. Now, there will be a little disruption, but it won’t be very long. But they need us. We really don’t need them. And we have to do this. I’m sorry."

As I said at the top of this post, this is by no means a perfect article; NBC spends far too much ink focusing on Trump's personal animus towards Justin Trudeau (who is no longer even the Canadian Prime Minister) and allowing named GOP officials to pretend they're confused by Trump's annexation plan even as they enact his orders to try and make that plan a reality. Crucially however, this report *does* make it abundantly clear that Trump is dead serious and his minions know full well that he's not joking:

"Trump has been unapologetic in his quest to conquer the Canadians — an effort he said in January would be conducted by “economic force.” The result has been a disintegration of the relationship between the U.S. and one of its closest allies, and a stock market plunge over fears of ever-increasing escalation of a trade war. Both Canadian officials and Republicans initially thought the president was merely joking, ribbing Trudeau — a longtime foil — after they met at Mar-a-Lago in November. It was after that visit that Trump first publicly floated the notion of absorbing Canada. Few think he’s joking now, and the Canadians have stopped laughing.

A source with direct knowledge of the discussions told NBC News that Trump is heavily focused on Canada in conversations with aides, who believe he is completely serious about making the country the 51st state — even with Trudeau out of power and a new prime minister in place."

Unfortunately, and despite this refreshing frankness, I have some problems with the sloppy journalism and credulous naivety with which NBC states that nobody knows where Trump is getting the idea to annex Canada from, including Republicans in his government. The fact is that MAGA-connected fascist propagandists like Candice Owens (and others) have been advocating for taking over, or even invading Canada since at least 2021-2022 for a variety of reasons; including natural resources, water rights, climate imperialism (although they don't use that term,) and even to protect their ideological brethren in the larger Canadian fascist movement from legal repercussions for their own slow-moving coup attempt in Canada, the so-called "Trucker Convoy." I genuinely have no idea if US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has any clue what Trump is thinking, but fascist media personalities in Trump's orbit certainly do, and this regime has already shown a willingness to outsource official policy from raving nazi dipshits on YouTube, so I don't think "where Trump is getting this idea from" is the kind of puzzle you need Scotland Yard's finest detectives to solve.

NBC News · Trump's quest to conquer Canada is confusing everyoneBy Allan Smith

"#Trump is running the country based on gut instincts, PR stunts and billionaire wishlists, not any coherent strategy. The whiplash from his #tariffs and erratic decisions is scaring the hell out of businesses and working families alike. And yet, his only focus seems to be cutting vital services while lining the pockets of #ElonMusk and other ultra-wealthy cronies." Ben Meiselas
meidasplus.com/p/rep-dan-goldm #tradewar #DOGE #Musk #Swasticar #EveryoneHatesElon #fascism #RESIST #fightoligarchy #politics