Trump’s tariff threat is a sign that Canada should be diversifying beyond the U.S.
A way for Canada to reduce its dependency on the U.S. would be to diversify its trading partners, which, in turn, would strengthen Canada’s bargaining position.
Oh, great idea. Nobody ever thought of that before.
Honestly? They really didn't. For a while Canada emphasized US trade for security reasons. We really should be developing closer ties to the EU.
Every province and industry has been holding trade missions for decades to diversify markets. It's not that it's easy to disconnect the US apron strings, but it's certainly been at the top of any trade organizations mind since at least the 70s.
Since we've had disputes like softwood lumber and BSE, local value-added chains have been also a massive push to incentivize and fund. Things like packing plants, lumber mills, canola crush plants, mixed product pipelines to the coast, and all the shipping terminals that make that product go away take decades to plan and implement but are another piece of the puzzle of trade independence. Those things have been in the works for a long time and every dispute with the US in the last half century have added momentum to that push.
It's not a new concept, but it feels less like a speculative fiction and more like a serious policy idea now.
I'm really mystified by this lack of awareness of work done in the past on international diversification. There have been great strides made in where we were even 20 years ago for international trade excluding the US. I've been on unpaid boards (non-profit, industry) where that's been the primary focus for my entire term. We've worked with all levels of government to try to streamline trade barriers between Canada and other countries because nobody, private or public, trusts the US to not swing their dicks around, even with sympathetic administrations in place.
Honestly, it's kind of deflating to see that work ignored.
Canada is under utilizing that new second land border with Denmark
I second an application for joining the EU
Denmark is the most developed country in North America for a reason.
I've been saying this since before it was cool. (Pass the expensive burgers and fleece)
Denmark is so awesome thanks to proportional representation! We should learn from them on that.
We need more self sufficiency in manufacturing and agriculture.
Everyone does. Capitalism fucked everyone with outsourcing.
Yes i agree, but the problem with that is the goods would be expensive because of the wages that would need to be paid. It's one of the main reasons that this stuff left canada in the first place. We do have alot of agriculture here, but when it comes to some crops its chepaer for us to import it than grow it. I don't know how we would fix things, but there would need to be adjustments
Would have been nice of the author to mention the massive amount of trade deals that Canada already has.
Canada is the only G7 nation to have free trade agreements with every other G7 nation. The wikipedia page on Canadas trade deals is huge, 15 free trade agreements with 51 countries.
And most of the countries he suggested in the article are under active negotioation, the big ones being:
Canada could have free trade agreements with every country on the planet and would still probably trade more with the US because they're right there, they make a lot of stuff, and are the worlds largest economy... We cant teleport goods around the planet yet.
I think that targeted public funding to create domestic industries would be a much better way to secure the economy against US isolationism. Specifically in high tech industries. Why export 100$ worth of lumber to buy 1000$ worth of chairs if youll pardon my gross economic oversimplification.
Yeah, I've actually come to think a smaller tariff would be good. There would be short term pain, but it would produce reorganisation away from the US.
Maybe A few dacades too late 🤷
I've sometimes thought we could adopt the Euro as a currency, though it would remove our ability to float the dollar to change export/import ratios.
Wow... Almost mainstream media saying so. They do delay mentioning China for a few paragraphs, but that is clearly the answer, if the auto/EV plant investments are cut off from US competitiveness.
Canadian politicians and media need to reject their CIA allegiances. The obvious role China can play is investing in natural resource extraction. Ask for 50/50 joint ventures in industry that processes those materials with options to buy a share of the production, and export a portion of value added processing as well as raw materials. Canada should withdraw from NATO if US puts tariffs on it. Rutte demanding extra US sycophancy by boosting military spending to 3%, and sacrificing pensions, healthcare, and social security to do so, and our media runs stories of "mandatory draft" and absurd threats to Arctic that are met by F35 purchases somehow.
All NATO colonies have significant GDP lag compared to US since Ukraine fiasco. The idea to reward Trump by importing more US weapons should be a repulsive reaction to the subjugation that Biden inflicted. Copying tariffs without Chinese consultations was by far the most pathethic act of submission of our Government, and Trump is "rewarding" our cowardice.