[Newsbot]

Title: Donald Trump�s cabinet choices want to tax Canadian imports 20 per cent | Financial Post
Category: Business
Posted By: shockedcanadian
Date: 2016-12-03 09:17:28
Canadian

[shockedcanadian]

Jan 20th is when they are sworn in.

[N_Fiddledog]

"Ostensibly, this sets back globalism concepts, which seek to eliminate tit-for-tat tariffs which are the inevitable result when countries go unilateral on their trade policy. Ultimately, the imposition, collection and reconciliation of such taxes only adds to the red tape and costs of cross-border trade."

Were we really doing so bad before NAFTA?

Honestly. I don't know.

[martin14]

N_Fiddledog N_Fiddledog:

Were we really doing so bad before NAFTA?

Honestly. I don't know.

It doesn't matter at this point, the past is not an indication of the future.

Canada's economy is 75% - 80% sending stuff to the US.

Putting a 20% tariff on that will really hurt.

For supporting Trump, I never thought he would be a good President for Canada,
if he follows through on his threats to carve up NAFTA.

Obviously he needs to do something to stop the jobs bleeding to Mexico,
and import taxes on them will make many companies want to come back to the US.

I was hoping we wouldn't get caught in the cross-fire, oh well.

Hopefully 20% was an opening position, and we can talk them down.

[shockedcanadian]

America will engage in bilateral trade deals. Canadas economy will suffer, probably shrink.

[shockedcanadian]

martin14 martin14:

N_Fiddledog N_Fiddledog:

Hopefully 20% was an opening position, and we can talk them down.

Or that's the low end and they negotiate it upwards. Depends on how much they trust us I suppose. We have been running a trade surplus with them for some time.

[N_Fiddledog]

Here's another one I speak in curiosity, but out of ignorance.

It's always seemed to me like America's bitches against us in trade are more targeted by industry. I imagine they don't mind the industries where they're screwing us. I hear those exist out of the corner of my ear, but don't know exactly what they are. I think I heard something about beef.

The ones I remember hearing about where they're not happy with us are the forest industry and us "stealing" from their film and television industry.

So here's my question. Will these adjustments be targeted or across the field?

[shockedcanadian]

I guess we will see come January 20th. It's going to be an interesting four years, that's for sure.

[bootlegga]

N_Fiddledog N_Fiddledog:

"Ostensibly, this sets back globalism concepts, which seek to eliminate tit-for-tat tariffs which are the inevitable result when countries go unilateral on their trade policy. Ultimately, the imposition, collection and reconciliation of such taxes only adds to the red tape and costs of cross-border trade."

Were we really doing so bad before NAFTA?

Honestly. I don't know.

We weren't doing bad, because we had a few deals like the Auto Pact, but we were always worried that a lobby group would convince Congress to become protectionist and lock us out of the US market. That happened a number of times over agricultural goods, lumber, and other resources.

FTA (and later NAFTA) were supposed to provide certainty for industry on both sides of the border. It protected us so that we had secure access to the US market and ensured that US industry had access to no tariff raw materials.

I've read that if Trump does back out of NAFTA, FTA is supposed to kick in, but I honestly don't know if that's true or not. Of course, if it does, Trump can probably back out of that one too.

The next four years may be very difficult for Canada.