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So, can the US be named a Banana Republic now?
CAN-USA Tariff Strife (split from various pol threads)
- Thread starter Remius
- Start date
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What's alarming is that such behavior is completely legal.
GK .Dundas
Army.ca Veteran
- Reaction score
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Well at least we now know what the going rate is .
The real question is is there any sort of tax advantage to leasing a President as opposed to buying one ?
The real question is is there any sort of tax advantage to leasing a President as opposed to buying one ?
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Foreign Preferred rate (Russia, Israel, Board of Peace members, et al) or Foreign Nasty Nations?
Compared to what’s happening today, the Teapot Dome Scandal of the 1920s seems rather trivial.
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Follow the money. PACs and foundations. Not hard; they're right out in the open.
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If the average American who actually votes clearly understood their entire voting system - from PACs/Foundations to voter registration to compensation to lobbyists, I think that there would be alot of people put against the wall and shot.
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Figuratively, they are. The insurgency is upon them already. Problem is, the insurgent faction is led by Trump.
Relevant news of the moment: McConnell (definitely part of the old establishment) is preventing the SAVE Act (voter registration and identification) from getting to the Senate floor for a vote.
McG
Army.ca Legend
- Reaction score
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Trump's Global Tariffs were never about Canada. So Trump's Global Tariff Tantrum will not be about Canada either.
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- Reaction score
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If the average voter actually understood their own system, 'figuratively' would translate into literally.
Right from the horse’s mouth. There is no advantageous trade deal to be had.
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Who does he think exactly pays the tariffs? I'm sure American manufacturers that use things like Canadian aluminium and steel are really happy they are going to pay a surcharge on materials they need to make stuff, decreasing their competiveness even further.
HavokFour
Army.ca Veteran
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- Reaction score
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There are degrees of advantage.
The greatest simple economic advantage should lie with untrammeled trade. Almost no country (maybe actually no country?) occupies this position.
If the utility of protecting selected domestic producers is sufficient, a situation of mostly free trade with some protectionism could theoretically yield greater overall utility (for the protectionist). Often (usually) protectionism is pure domestic politics elevated to international effect, irrespective of the fact that it's a net loss (eg. more losers-consumers than winners-producers) for the protectionist. Whatever the measure of utility, most countries (including Canada, and usually the US) occupy this position.
Clearly the administration believes the US should be able to charge a premium for access to its market. That sets it in a new position, but they're directly charging that premium to their own people in the beliefs that foreign exporters will absorb some of the cost and that substitution will stoke US productivity. They also want to claim revenues raised as a success, but the more substitution of domestic output occurs, the more those revenues will drop. They of course ignore the detrimental effects on themselves (eg. protection of domestic US steel production costs steel users more than the producers gain).
What confounds the expectations that depend on the conventional belief that import tariffs are sub-optimal is that the US is such a ridiculously economically productive country - it can mostly afford the cost. Add in the domestic gains, and an explanation emerges as to why the administration's policies have not created as much domestic dissatisfaction as expected/predicted/hoped by opponents.
The unpalatable truth might be that the administration can make its demands without dashing electoral prospects if the costs do not sufficiently outweigh the benefits in the reckoning of voters. There are other factors in play that may be elevating overall economic performance: drop in federal government employment (on the order of 10%); deportation (mostly self-deportation) of enough people in the country illegally for replacement by US citizens at slightly higher wages to be making positive differences in employment and productivity numbers.
That puts Canada in the unwanted/unfair position of having to decide how much it should concede to maximize access to a large proximate wealthy market, while leaving Canadian exporters to figure out how to compete there.
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Here it is plainly laid out to us from the Japanese Ambassador to Canada. It refreshing to see this sort of honesty coming from a politician.
CUSMA a ‘critical condition’ for increased Japanese auto manufacturing in Canada: Ambassador
“Canada is, of course, a G7 country. Your GDP is one of the top ten countries — $2.5 trillion. But you know the size of the U.S. market? $30 trillion.”
“All those cars made in Canada, of course sold in Canada, but at the same time, exported to the U.S market,” added Yamanouchi. “(For) private companies, that means they have to calculate to increase profit. So CUSMA is a very important part of the calculation.”
Japanese Ambassador to Canada Kanji Yamanouchi says continued access to the U.S. market, as provided for under CUSMA, is essential for current and potential increased Japanese investment in auto manufacturing in Canada.
Honda and Toyota have manufactured vehicles in Canada for decades, and while overall auto production in Canada has declined in the last ten years, these two companies are now consistently outproducing their American rivals.
In 2024 and 2025, Honda and Toyota each assembled more vehicles in Canada than Ford, General Motors and Stellantis combined.....
Employment trends are also following production trends, with Japanese automakers employing more than 60 per cent of all automotive assembly workers in Ontario in 2024 versus just 38 per cent by American companies.
Yamanouchi said the opening of LNG Canada’s export terminal last year was a “very, very important historical event,” as it opened markets in Asia, including Japan.
The Japanese ambassador said there is more appetite for Canadian LNG in his country, and he pointed to the yet-to-be approved Phase 2 of LNG Canada — which would double the export terminal’s export capacity — as an important future project.
“That (expansion) would make LNG Canada facility the second largest in the world and Asian countries, especially Japan, are very much interested,” Yamanouchi said, pointing to the 10-day shipping time and relative geopolitical safety of the marine route.
“This is a very, very important project for us.”
CUSMA a ‘critical condition’ for increased Japanese auto manufacturing in Canada: Ambassador
CUSMA a ‘critical condition’ for increased Japanese auto manufacturing in Canada: Ambassador
“Canada is, of course, a G7 country. Your GDP is one of the top ten countries — $2.5 trillion. But you know the size of the U.S. market? $30 trillion.”
“All those cars made in Canada, of course sold in Canada, but at the same time, exported to the U.S market,” added Yamanouchi. “(For) private companies, that means they have to calculate to increase profit. So CUSMA is a very important part of the calculation.”
Japanese Ambassador to Canada Kanji Yamanouchi says continued access to the U.S. market, as provided for under CUSMA, is essential for current and potential increased Japanese investment in auto manufacturing in Canada.
Honda and Toyota have manufactured vehicles in Canada for decades, and while overall auto production in Canada has declined in the last ten years, these two companies are now consistently outproducing their American rivals.
In 2024 and 2025, Honda and Toyota each assembled more vehicles in Canada than Ford, General Motors and Stellantis combined.....
Employment trends are also following production trends, with Japanese automakers employing more than 60 per cent of all automotive assembly workers in Ontario in 2024 versus just 38 per cent by American companies.
Japan wants more Canadian LNG: Ambassador
Energy security, specifically access to liquefied natural gas (LNG), is of particular importance to Japan.Yamanouchi said the opening of LNG Canada’s export terminal last year was a “very, very important historical event,” as it opened markets in Asia, including Japan.
The Japanese ambassador said there is more appetite for Canadian LNG in his country, and he pointed to the yet-to-be approved Phase 2 of LNG Canada — which would double the export terminal’s export capacity — as an important future project.
“That (expansion) would make LNG Canada facility the second largest in the world and Asian countries, especially Japan, are very much interested,” Yamanouchi said, pointing to the 10-day shipping time and relative geopolitical safety of the marine route.
“This is a very, very important project for us.”
