NationStates Jolt Archive

ok sence you already know where i live, i would like to start a thread on the trade battle that is starting up between Canada and the U.S.

is it justified?

what is everyones take on the problem?

I am not an expert on it, by no means, but I think that we'd both be better off adopting more liberal free trade policies, and stop bickering on things like lumber. If the American lumber companies have to compete with Canadian lumber, then so be it. Competition is a good thing. Besides, that particular solution would make it cheaper to build a home, and maybe sustain housing prices.

A tariff is just an indirect form of taxation. Another way for the government to take money away from people.

i have to agree but do you think that canada place tarrifs on us products to fight back

i have to agree but do you think that canada place tarrifs on us products to fight back

I believe that Canada needs to find better trade partners and get out of these stupid organizations such as NAFTA. We need to stop being so dependent on the USA. We also need a better Prime Minister - Paul Martin is like one of the most conservative Liberals in a long time. An NDP PM would be perfect.

By the way, I'm from Ontario.

A tariff is just an indirect form of taxation.
Actually, tariffs are a direct form of taxation. They are a tax on imported goods.

I believe that Canada needs to find better trade partners and get out of these stupid organizations such as NAFTA. We need to stop being so dependent on the USA. We also need a better Prime Minister - Paul Martin is like one of the most conservative Liberals in a long time. An NDP PM would be perfect.

By the way, I'm from Ontario.

We should just finally learn that as trade partners go, there are better, more reliable partners out there. Partners who don't stiff us, renege on deals, ignore treaties, or try to link equitable trade with political fealty.

When the original US-Canada Free Trade Pact was being hashed out, it was called an 'opportunity'. Opportunity. It's funny, but every single 'opportunity' that we've been presented has resulted in less wealth and prosperity all around, with a few, a tiny fraction. really - getting wealthier and more prosperous.

After Free Trade, lots of companies closed up and moved south to the US. After Nafta, even more companies did the same thing, and moved south to Mexico. And under Nafta, we're supposed to have access to the American markets. But apart from our resources, the Americans would seem to have little interest in us, certainly they have no interest in our manufacturing sector.

I say the whole intent of Free Trade was to make water - yep, water, the fresh stuff, the intent was to get us to put water on the table as a negotiable commodity, something that would never have happened had our PM of the day, the much-loathed Mulroney, not been in the back pocket of the Reagan/Bush administration.

Oh, I just don't care enough to go on about this crap. Some smarmy neocon dude with an economics major will just slag me and I'll get my spine twisted up into a lather. Fuck that noise.

Free Trade bites. It's bullshit, it always was, it was never meant as an 'opportunity' except as a way to further maximize profits for a bunch of capitalistic, cretinous twerps living in gated communities that none of us will ever be allowed to enter, unless it's to service them in some manner.

That's all I'm gonna say. I'm done.

ok sence you already know where i live, i would like to start a thread on the trade battle that is starting up between Canada and the U.S.

is it justified?

what is everyones take on the problem?
Decrease trade with the US and increase trade with the EU instead.

Tariffs incourage a nations people to buy their own shitty produce instead of another nations good produce

I do not know specifically what the grievances behind this one are, but in an all-out trade war, the cessation of Canadian natural gas exports would switch off the electricity supply in most of the US until their resumption, thereby handing the Canadians an overwhelming victory...until the implosion of the US economy (and subsequent US invasion) rebounded on them.

So, it's not really in anyone's interest to push this very hard. Most likely, both sides will reach a gentleman's agreement to do just enough damage to the other to appease their voters. It's how this sort of thing is usually done.

the reality is america has already tried to invade canada and people wouldnt stand for it canadiens are white dammit
if America cant handle "non existant" resources of its own then tough bikkies

OR Canada and the US could just finally merge, and then we wouldnt have to worry about argueing over trade between the two of us :)

OR Canada and the US could just finally merge, and then we wouldnt have to worry about argueing over trade between the two of us :)

I don't think our fellow canadians would like to be annexed to The Kingdom of His Royal Bushiness

The Americans have put those tarrifs on the Lumber and banned beef to give their own markets a shot in the arm, and to blackmail canada into joing the missle defence program....well maybe a little less of the missle defence but i think its got some hand in this. So if americans are gona accuse us of subsidizing our industries as justification for these new anti trade regulations...then lets subsidize them. I'd love to see the governemnt step in and subsidize the cattle and lumer to the point where the american market becomes destroyed for these items, i wouldn't even mind paying taxes for that.

Economics 101 should be taught in juniour high school.

Free Trade, whether to support it or abandon it, doesn't matter a rat's ass to the U.S. - and never did! The whole FT/NAFTA debacle was staged for one express purpose - to ensure that our government-of-the-day enact legislation that recognizes the American assertion that WATER (lemme say that again: WATER) is a saleable commodity.

If you want to see America's attitudes re: trade, just look and see how they've never lived up to their end of our agreements. Being sensible for a moment, would you really trade anything with the track record of these notorious double-dealing welchers? We should learn from our mistakes and find honest markets. Let the US rotate on their history of broken promises and total self-interest.

There was a time not so long ago that fresh water was considered free - and a basic right - here in Canada. The American aquifers are poised to fail within 8 years. FT/NAFTA was all about ensuring we can't refuse future American demands for our resources by reclassifying one of our most precious natural resources as a commodity.

Either the US doesn't understand the concept of free trade OR the world doesn't understand the US's concept of free trade. I think the US definition does something like this - The world is global and as such we would practice a global economy. This will allowing vast amounts of competition and thus increasing quality and decreasing prices. However, the US (being better than everyone else) should still be allowed to practice protectionsim. We like to screw over those African cotton farmers. :D

Well I can't say EU is any better for practicing true free trade, what with all their CAP bullshit.

On a side note I think water is a saleable commodity, or at least the services that provide the water are. But then the UK has laws that drinking water is a right, and as such the water companies can't cut your water supply off.

And lastly, the EU is big enough to make the US back down on their tariffs on steel.
The Europeans were hit hard by the protectionist measures and set a mid-December deadline to impose retaliatory trade sanctions that would have cost the Americans more than $2bn.

The Europeans threatened to impose tariffs on a wide range of US goods, particularly those manufactured in marginal states that will be important to Mr Bush in the elections.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3291675.stm

Decrease trade with the US and increase trade with the EU instead.

I love you, lets have childreen!

Free trade all the way gentlemen.