Trade war back again?

The Conservative Party leader recently took issue with Trudeau for not taking stronger measures to protect the Canadian steel industry. Canada won't roll over and play dead for Trump.

 

They won't have too. An agreement will be reached where Canada will get exempted from the tariff in return for US specified support against illegal Chinese trade practices. Nothing new here.

 

Trump is screwing up by going after our friends at the same time he's pressuring China.

 

It's up to us. Canada won't sit still for Trump creating so much uncertainty it destroys capital investment in Canadian manufacturing. Their signing a trade deal with the EU, joining the TPP, and preliminary talks with China shows they're slowly moving away from us. Trump is accelerating the process.

 

No worries, they can't go far and they don't want to.

 

The opposition is criticizing Trudeau for not doing more.

 

yeah, well that's what oppositions do, ya know?

 

You have it partly correct. They don't want to, but they are and will. Trudeau is trying his hardest to get a deal Canada can live with (btw, the five-year sunset, Trump's poison pill, is a total nonstarter and not even a bargaining chip for us), but he's under increasing political pressure to push back harder.

Trump can probably get a bilateral trade deal with Canada, but it won't be on better terms than we have now. We could get different terms--say, better access to their dairy and poultry markets in exchange for better access to our lumber market or reduced restrictions on them sourcing pharmaceuticals at cheaper prices abroad. We pushed them as far as we can already.

 

Sounds like something a fellow Slav would say Are you sure you're not one of us.

 

No worries, LangleyMan.

 

For example, I led the fight to oust a far right school board in a conservative town (we have a Christian university) and replace them with right-center coalition, and organized the opposition to a $2b garbage dump for twenty cities. I ran a business with 100 employees.

Political deals often involve constituencies that can't be reached with reached by tossing in more money, or don't respond favorably to backing off after applying pressure. You have to be aware of the political pressures on and needs of your opponents which are different than financial pressures.

Of course, there can be overlap between business and political deals, something large businesses experience. Facebook's Zuckerberg is running into politcal problems he seems to have difficulty with.

 

I think what snowden did was an act of treason

And should be a capital offense

 

Get a clue--I never supported Obama. Americans need to adjust to the reality high-wage, low-skill jobs are gone forever.

You just made my point.

We have a goods and services surplus with Canada, fer crissake. Not only that, but they send us a lot of raw materials in exchange for finished goods.

Exactly what Canada is doing. They're in the TPP, have a trade deal with the EU, in formal talks with South American countries, and have had exploratory talks with China. For us, our raw materials ship is sailing.

 

What would those dumbass policies be?

 

We raised the price in anticipation of the tariffs on our competition. It happened on lumber a few months ago.

 

They could have accused him of doing too much. But they didn't.

 

Exempting Canada from the steel and aluminum tariffs won't buy us anything but relief from Canadian tariffs.

 

Sure he is.

 

Trump is negotiating in the real world unlike the fantasy world of the classroom.

 

So what ?? Trudeau is an economic governance embarrassment.

 

You are the economics professor ??

 

O ... the old topic Snowden again ... and again / is he still the evil traitor?

Well ... so different are the views, because for me he is a hero!
Without his "betrayal" we would not know what horrible and above all illegal (!!!) things US intelligence agencies did ... against their own citizens and against allies and friends.

But of course, for people like you, Snowden is the evil ... for me, it are his superiors and the responsible politicians, and none of them has been indicted to this day, even though the evidences are watertight. That says everything about the state of the US legal system and is one fat proof that Snowden had no choice but to do as what he did!

 

Snowden is still in Russia, yes? I think that tells us who he was working for.

 

The US legal system is a shambles in part because people like snowden will never be punished for treason

Neither will hillary who may not be a traitor but did reveal US secrets to the enemy because of her personal greed