Canada, Greenland, Mexico, etc - USA Tariffs / Trade War commencing March 2025 #4

[Vern]

I agree with you on this fully. And... even in the 19th century, the Europeans set up colonies to get the raw materials they lacked.

But..... at the end of the day, some countries need less imported materials than others. And... some of the imported things that they need might currently be imported at artificially high prices for a variety of reasons (foreign governments subsidizing, say, local lumber industries)

Not in Canada. That's the thing about capitalist economies, say, rare stuff goes for higher prices. Supply/Demand. Crown Land is extremely plentiful ... as is lumber here. A virtually 'endless' supply.

 

[otto]

Then they go on the world stage and show their profound ignorance and laziness to everyone. Unreal.

With the high visibility of this matter, they really needed to be accurate. Make a list and check it twice.

I still believe that it was ChatGPT and other AI tools that cooked up the numbers based on limited data. It was beyond lazy and ignorant. It was arrogant with the assumption that everyone in the world is simplistic and too stupid to see what Trump and his government are doing ... which is trying to fool people.

The USA government blindly trusted AI (very likely with the advice of Musk), printed out some medieval-day style announcement handouts "read all about it", and then went golfing. Meanwhile, the penguins are confused.

 

[Herat]

I want a journalist to look into investment actions by Republican senators, etc, in advance of Trump announcements.

There may be a Pultizer prize in this for a good journalistic investigation about this.

 

[Vern]

Would there be any effect on franchises within these tariffs?

Well, McDonald's Canada uses all-Canadian beef & potatos etc for their items.

 

[iamshadow21]

Well,.maybe Norfolk Island is "on the map" now, and they can soon expect a big influx of tourists! I don't think we can say the same.e for Heard Island though.

They would like that! Most of the economy revolves around tourism. It's beautiful, remote, rugged, temperate climate. Pretty beaches and dramatic cliffs. A bunch of unique flora and fauna because of its ecological isolation. Interesting history.

And yeah, leave Heard to the penguins.

MOO

 

[Kemug]

Then they go on the world stage and show their profound ignorance and laziness to everyone. Unreal.

All the while shouting "We are the greatest!".

 

[Herat]

It is a matter that is not spoken about very much, yet it is one of the USA"s big export industries, the ghastliness of it defies all rationale. And how desperate , how utterly beaten down must people be to sell their blood .. SELL it..

I should know but I don't;, if you are in hospital in the uSA and you need a blood transfusion, is the actual product. not so much the labour of the transfusion but the actual blood , is that a charge on the patients bill??

Blood collected for transfusion into patients is completely voluntary and it is illegal to compensate donors. The philosophy is that donors need to be honest in answering their health questionnaires and not under a financial incentive or any duress to donate. Blood transfusions are essentially tranplantations of living cells with the same complex matching issues and potential for disease transmission as solid organ transplants, so they are not pharmaceuticals. Products that fall into this category are packed red blood cells, platelet units, fresh frozen plasma, cryopreciptitate, and whole blood units.

Plasma collection agencies are different than blood collection agencies. The plasma collection can be compensated because their plasma is used to prepare blood-derivative concentrates and albumin, which are products that are licensed as pharmaceutical agents, not blood transfusion products.

Yes, hospitals have contracts with blood supply companies to provide them with products. Then the laboratory has complex and sophisticated testing and confimation to do on each unit and the patient to assure the particular product is the correct product for the patient.

There are very complex laboratory regulations for the safety of blood transfusions. These require medical technologist, directors, and physicians to supervise the process to comply with regulations.

The blood collection companies also have very stringent regulations about donor screening, donor testing, collection methods, and testing for a variety of diseases and quality issues. All this costs money to produce.

 

[Vern]

I meant within their own economy - and those products are probably used for their exports.

"China announced on Monday that its trade surplus reached almost $1 trillion last year as its exports swamped the globe, while the country’s own businesses and households spent cautiously on imports."

China’s Trade Surplus Reaches a Record of Nearly $1 Trillion

China’s vast exports in 2024 exceeded its imports on a scale seldom seen anywhere except during or immediately after the two world wars.

www.nytimes.com

The consequences are that cheap Chinese goods continue flooding the globe.

But IMO, the one iron law of all time is: Everything is Always Changing.

And so will China.

JMO

Imagine that - China gets almost a $1 trillion surplus in a year .... and that's a problem for some folks.

BUT, the US markets dropped 2.4 TRILLION (!!) in a single market day ... yet some people will claim that's not a problem.

Darn economics!!

https://www.reuters.com/markets/global-markets-pix-2025-04-03/

Trillions wiped from the economy and Americans' pensions as stock markets tank following Donald Trump's tariffs; here's what you need to know

Discover how Trump's recent tariffs have triggered a stock market crash, erasing trillions from the economy and impacting American pensions. Learn about the effects on retail prices and what this means for consumers and investors.

m.economictimes.com

https://www.reuters.com/markets/sp-500-loses-24-trillion-market-value-biggest-one-day-loss-since-2020-2025-04-03/

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-03/trump-tariffs-set-to-zap-nearly-2-trillion-from-us-stock-market

https://www.livemint.com/market/stock-market-news/global-markets-today-us-stock-market-slumps-s-p-500-sheds-2-4-trillion-as-trumps-tariffs-raise-recession-fears-11743728054031.html

-

 

[Kemug]

They would like that! Most of the economy revolves around tourism. It's beautiful, remote, rugged, temperate climate. Pretty beaches and dramatic cliffs. A bunch of unique flora and fauna because of its ecological isolation. Interesting history.

And yeah, leave Heard to the penguins.

MOO

Yes, Norfolk Island is wonderful. However I still prefer Lord Howe Island.

 

[Kemug]

Yes, Norfolk Island is wonderful. However I still prefer Lord Howe Island.

Which I'm pretty sure Trump & Co have never heard of.

 

[iamshadow21]

Which I'm pretty sure Trump & Co have never heard of.

If they had, they would have been tarriffed too!

 

[Maumau1616]

BUT.... Russia and Israel are spared. Curious. Read into it what you might.

Israel wasn't spared but Russia and North Korea were....

 

[Kemug]

Yes, Norfolk Island is wonderful. However I still prefer Lord Howe Island.

And how about Pitcairn Island?

 

[Trooper]

And how about Pitcairn Island?

Lucky their beady little drunken peepers did not pick up on King Island. home of some of the grear cheeses of the world... tsk tsk tsk... how careless... or even that famous island , Tasmania. exporter of some of the finest woods in the world.....

 

[Lyanna]

And so it starts. Stellantis employees were told to take a 2 week break from work. It might be much longer. Next, there will be layoff of automakers in the USA. Vehicle production will slow down.

"The U.S. can't have its cake and eat it, too," says Karl Schamotta, chief market strategist at the financial services firm Corpay.
...

Stellantis, owner of the Jeep and Ram brands, paused production at some plants in Canada and Mexico. ... the pause will impact some of its U.S. powertrain and stamping facilities that support those factories.

That will lead to the layoffs of American workers. The pause impacts roughly 3,200 people in Canada and about 900 in the U.S.

So, investors are losing their shirts. American workers are being laid off and the tariffs haven't even been fully imposed yet. Meanwhile, Canada has enacted a matching 25 per cent tariff on U.S.-made vehicles.
...
Tariffs are a tax on American businesses. The Budget Lab at Yale University crunched the numbers and found Wednesday's announcement has pushed the average effective tariff rate in the U.S. to 22.5 per cent, the highest since 1909." ... All of this year's tariffs will raise prices by 2.3 per cent, he said, amounting to an average loss of $3,800."

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/trump-tariffs-price-tag-global-economy-1.7501340

That's awful. Life is tough enough already, people don't need this from a deranged felon.

Moo

 

[Trooper]

Trump's position is that the US is only implementing 50% of the restrictions that these countries do to the US trade wise.

well. . that would knock out MacDonald Island and Heard Island and Norfolk Island. ,,since none of those places have any truck or business with the USA...

...... OR the nerds in the Whitehouse are sillier than my little Pomeranian, ,who to this day believes she can fly like the Kookaburra, .... so which one is it?? dumb, or a negative capacity for mathematics??? or both?

 

[Lyanna]

I still believe that it was ChatGPT and other AI tools that cooked up the numbers based on limited data. It was beyond lazy and ignorant. It was arrogant with the assumption that everyone in the world is simplistic and too stupid to see what Trump and his government are doing ... which is trying to fool people.

The USA government blindly trusted AI (very likely with the advice of Musk), printed out some medieval-day style announcement handouts "read all about it", and then went golfing. Meanwhile, the penguins are confused.

Was wondering how much input elon had in this, if any. Seems like something he would want to be involved with.

Moo

 

[SouthAussie]

"The White House claimed to base its decision on tariff rates and nontariff barriers, but economic journalist James Surowiecki reckons it was all just a back-of-the-envelope calculation. “Instead, for every country, they just took our trade deficit with that country and divided it by the country's exports to us,” ... “What extraordinary nonsense this is.”

Nobody can argue with that. He has provided his proof. I did his calculation on a few of the figures and he is exactly right. That's what they did .... or that's what probably an AI program did for them.

And as The Telegraph so rightly points out (link below), those of us where the US has a trade surplus are being tariffed 10%. We should actually be charging the US because we buy more from them than they buy from us. Yet he puts us among the "worst offenders".

What kind of crazy nonsense is this that is being fed to the US public?


However, a White House official said the “baseline 10pc tariff” was adopted to stop the “worst offenders” from trying to dodge the tariffs by diverting goods through other countries.

Access Restricted

 

[musicaljoke]

It's processed meat of unknown origin. Same with cheese. In Canada, fresh vegetables come from Mexico or the USA during Winter. Olives ... Greece? The tariff is on the individual ingredients, meaning the over all cost must increase.

The wheat for Subway bread likely comes from Canada, mustard from Canada, and coffee and tea are imported, tuna is from the Philippines, Canola oil from Canada, Chocolate, confections and sugar are imported, some from Mexico, Cashews from Vietnam, Seasonings are imported. Processed chicken, fish and seafood are imported from China, Coke is sold in cans made from imported aluminum.

When you look over the list of food ingredients, it's easy to see that Subway relies on imports.

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[musicaljoke]

[...] I will re-emphasize my point that Trump is effectively taking down the global economy. I wish he cared about people. Sadly, it appears that he doesn't. But you seem to be standing up for him so I'd love to hear your view on why you stand with him. I very well might be missing something.

I believe that for some trusting followers, it is much like having a beloved dog that bites you. There is a dreadful feeling of betrayal. Some people will excuse the dog, even believe that the fault was their own and allow the biting to continue. Some will be able to see the truth, that their dear pet is a danger in their home.

We are all different and process information with greater or less logic. Some people will never understand the danger.