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CAN-USA Tariff Strife (split from various pol threads)

QV said:
If it turns out the Canadian issues with this latest proposal are exaggerated for political purposes, the LPC putting interests of the party before country, how many of you are going still be ok with the LPC?
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Too many people are too easily fooled. I will be selling these folks some "excellent" deals on time shares with this level of gullibility
 
Problem is Trump, Lutnick and even Greer have all been guilty of outright lying over the past months and years and so we cannot automatically trust their version of events. And while Canadian officials are not above lying when it suits the occasion my take is they are certainly more honest than Trump or Lutnick and probably Greer too. That being said, I suspect Carney was fed some inaccurate info about the Americans position of the French stuff and now he is stuck with it.
 
Genetk44 said:
Problem is Trump, Lutnick and even Greer have all been guilty of outright lying over the past months and years and so we cannot automatically trust their version of events. And while Canadian officials are not above lying when it suits the occasion my take is they are certainly more honest than Trump or Lutnick and probably Greer too. That being said, I suspect Carney was fed some inaccurate info about the Americans position of the French stuff and now he is stuck with it.
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I think on the french stuff, the Americans are mistaking what the issue was. We have Lutnick saying he doesnt care what people speak in quebec.

That wasn't the issue.

We have Greer saying french language on tech platforms wasn't a red line. Okay, but he's dropping that as an issue after the deadline.

This is the problem with arbitrary deadlines too. If negotiators have too much to solve, bigger ticket issues lets say, and they dont have time to hash out the language requirements in terms of discoverability, then yes, technically thats a unresolved language issue because the clock ran out.

If the yanks are saying this wasn't an issue, that wasn't an issue, they should have said that before the timer hit zero, not after.
 
Except it was an issue: They specifically listed the Quebec bills that require French and greater fronting of French content in Quebec in their list of irritants. Moreover, and no decision has yet been rendered AFAIK, they (the US) have already challenged these bills at the WTO and are awaiting decision. So its not a minor thing because the US barely ever take an issue to the WTO.
 
While I don't agree with the majority of the issues that Trump has with Canada's international trade, they do have some valid points to which we must admit that Canadian companies (or more likely international companies operating within Canada) are if not skirting the rules, are outright breaking them. I think the concern about dumping steel and aluminum are probably accurate. It was quite common for companies to import low quality steel or aluminum finished items, scrap it and resell to the US at a cheaper price than what it would cost to produce locally (either through the recycling process or mining).
The language requirements one is also interesting. Does it really make sense to have to label items in French that ship anywhere outside of Quebec? That change could also save Canadian companies money if they only had to label items in English unless they were heading to Quebec.
 
captloadie said:
The language requirements one is also interesting. Does it really make sense to have to label items in French that ship anywhere outside of Quebec? That change could also save Canadian companies money if they only had to label items in English unless they were heading to Quebec.
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And what of Francophone NB & MB? Are you equally content if labelling in Quebec has no English?
Do we also abandon the metric system and other regulatory information requirements so American companies can just ship products with their domestic labelling?
 
captloadie said:
Does it really make sense to have to label items in French that ship anywhere outside of Quebec? That change could also save Canadian companies money if they only had to label items in English unless they were heading to Quebec.
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Yes, and BTW, the Americans (US) already produce most of their goods labelled in two languages in the US: they add Spanish and yet, it's not an "official" language, they also then add French for exports to Canada, so for a very large proportion of goods made in the US, trilingual labeling is the norm. Even more so since they also have trilingual labels for the products they export to Central and South America: English, Spanish and Portuguese, because they want people to be able to buy their stuff. So, I don't think that actual American companies care too much about one extra language to make sales. In my experience, it's Canadian companies outside Quebec that spend more time bitchin' about it.

French is an official language of Canada, not just Quebec. Personally, I would like to see even more from Canadian companies: start making labeling in multi-language: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German, polish, Swedish, so you can sell into the European market. But, hey! If you don't like anything but English then suffer and sell to the US only, even though without Spanish you are cuting yourself out of a quarter of its market.

McG said:
Do we also abandon the metric system.
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As a comedian once said: we don't have a metric system in Canada: We have a met-ish system, half metric and half English. We drive around in kilometers, but measure ourselves in feet and inches, we survey land for title square meters, but lease commercial properties by the square foot, we get our temperature in centigrade on the weather station, but get sick when our body temperature reaches 102 degrees Farenheit. etc. etc.
 
In Canadian and US news, US trade reps were pretty clear that the French language nor discoverability were serious matters to them that would sewer a deal.

It's looking more and more like the LPC is playing dirty politics to increase support in Quebec right before a few elections.

If that is happening - y'all good with that?
 
Oldgateboatdriver said:
As a comedian once said: we don't have a metric system in Canada: We have a met-ish system, half metric and half English. We drive around in kilometers, but measure ourselves in feet and inches, we survey land for title square meters, but lease commercial properties by the square foot, we get our temperature in centigrade on the weather station, but get sick when our body temperature reaches 102 degrees Farenheit. etc. etc.
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Also appropriate for the US Military (well other than the sea going folks).
 
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