cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/24657192

Summary

In a virtual speech at the World Economic Forum, Trump suggested Canada could become a U.S. state to avoid his proposed tariffs on imports.

The remark elicited gasps from the audience.

Trump claimed the U.S. does not need Canadian lumber, energy, or vehicles, vastly overstating the trade deficit between the two nations.

He reiterated his intention to impose tariffs, potentially as high as 25%, on imports from Canada and Mexico starting February 1.

Economists warn such tariffs would raise prices for U.S. consumers.

  • @ToadOfHypnosis@lemmy.ml
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    522 months ago

    Trump seems to have the goal of destroying the US from all I can tell. Our economy and power are so dependent on our connections to the rest of the world and he is burning them all down. The US dollar gets replaced as the fiat currency we are wholly fucked and this dumb shit is how that happens.

    • @Hafler@lemm.ee
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      322 months ago

      Somehow, even with conservatives owning all the branches of government, it will be the Dem’s fault.

      • SovietyWoomy [any]
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        72 months ago

        If Trump is serious about this it will be bipartisan by 2028 just like all the 2016 Trump policies that were bipartisan by 2020

      • Khoryphos [he/him]
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        72 months ago

        Lol that’s just the narrative they need to fundraise another loss in the 2028 election.

      • @coyootje@lemmy.world
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        32 months ago

        And they’ll even say sorry for it because they consider it “impolite” and “not done” to talk back to the sitting government or some shit.

        • @Hafler@lemm.ee
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          32 months ago

          Hard to prevent when you are trying to get in front of the flood of dumb things being put out right now.

      • @ToadOfHypnosis@lemmy.ml
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        92 months ago

        If America is forced to accept austerity measures over our massive debt when the dollar is no longer fiat, regular people will be the ones who suffer sadly.

        • As long as the US dollar has maintained and will maintain its supremacy, regular people suffer all over the world for the comfort of treatlerites in the imperial core.

          I’d rather the dollar crash so that the world has a chance.

    • Ænima
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      62 months ago

      That’s the point, I think, as well. I could see Putin using the useful idiot to destroy the primary rival to its superiority. The US is incredibly difficult to invade. The intelligence apparatus is too ingrained in all our communication to avoid detection. If you can’t get the rot to start from the outside, go for the inside.

      • nohaybanda [he/him]
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        182 months ago

        Damn these Russians making the US into warmongers. After all, stealing land is a completely foreign concept in America

      • davel [he/him]
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        12 months ago

        This is peak BlueAnon/Marvel Cinematic Delusion, where Putin is a supervillain with a global mind control network.

    • @octopus_ink@lemmy.ml
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      62 months ago

      And the last gasp of our conservatives as the final pillar of the whitehouse collapses into a flaming wreck due to Trumps ridiculous toddler-like mismanagement of everything will be to blame it all on the Democrats.

    • FuckyWucky [none/use name]
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      2 months ago

      When Dollar is replaced as the reserve currency, America’s imports will shrink and there may be inflation. But it won’t result it in defaulting on its domestic currency.

      Any austerity on the US will be self-inflicted (as it is in the UK and Europe). The unwillingness of the US Government to take over the economy from the parasites will make things much worse.

    • @CuffsOffWilly@lemmy.ml
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      132 months ago

      Actually tariffs will hurt Canadians deeply. Why? Because it means that Americans will lean towards not buying products made in (or partially made in) Canada. Plus, Canada would certainly reciprocate meaning the price of everything is going to go up in Canada. It’s not a good situation and our government needed to be spending the past 10 - 20 years developing stronger trade relations with other countries but instead we amplified our relationship with what is clearly a very unreliable and untrustworthy neighbour.

      • @bstix@feddit.dk
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        2 months ago

        Canada imports more from USA than it exports to USA. A trade war that decreases exports would hurt USA more than Canada.

        The largest exports from USA to Canada are cars and trucks. (Finished products) The largest exports from Canada to USA are minerals, fuels and pulp. (Raw material)

        This puts USA at a disadvantage in a tariff game, because it’s a lot easier for Canada to replace American cars with Asian or European cars, than it is for USA to replace the variety of ressources that Canada provides

        It’s also a lot easier for Canada to find other customers for raw materials than it is to sell American cars on other continents.

    • Banana
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      42 months ago

      We have a lot of resources. Ya our shit will get more expensive, but he’s gonna fuck his own country doing this. Canada will survive.

        • @ikidd@lemmy.world
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          22 months ago

          Honestly, the only way to keep that cost in the US is to mandate that anyone selling across border has a price set as of the day of the tariffs. If they sell under that price, they get export tariffed for the difference. Then at least there’s a chance that the tariff burden will be passed on to the US consumers and maybe they’ll do something.

          But we don’t have anything in place to make something like that happen at this point, and even if we did, I doubt we have the political will to shelter Canadians that way. Sure as fuck Polievre won’t do any such thing.

  • sircac
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    292 months ago

    Why people keep listening to what that being says? Just respond to his actions, anthing else is useless…

  • davel [he/him]
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    272 months ago

    Trump is going to speedrun all our vassals allies into joining BRICS, and I’m here for it.

  • @humanspiral@lemmy.ca
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    212 months ago

    There is no actual fentanyl or immigration basis for tariffs on Canada. Just submit to less representation than California, and help absorb large US debt with little in return for it.

  • @BastingChemina@slrpnk.net
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    192 months ago

    Canada is avoiding Trump’s tariffs by not becoming a state.

    They are not paying the tariffs, american people do. So by joining the US they would start paying all the tariffs that Trump is putting on China’s products, European products …

    • @ikidd@lemmy.world
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      12 months ago

      Why do people think that happens? It does not happen. 90% of the tariffs will be absorbed by Canadian companies trying to keep up sales to the US because there’s nowhere else to go, and even if they sell elsewhere, it’ll be discounted that much to other countries because of the general laws of supply and demand.

      The only way, and it’s one that we have nothing in place to effect, is to mark prices as of the tariff date and to enact an export tariff for the amount of the sale under the price set point. That would highly discourage discounting sales and pretty much just cut them off since, in the case of products made or produced in the US, it would be competing with local products at 125% of the local price.

      • @Ithral@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        82 months ago

        The importer, not the exporter pays tariffs. Aka Canada pays nothing, things made in Canada have an extra tax attached to them when they cross the boarder into the us, paid by Walmart or whomever ordered the goods

        • @ikidd@lemmy.world
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          22 months ago

          Yes, but in the real world, while the importer pays the tariff, they’ve taken a discount on cost from their supplier in order to compete with local goods that aren’t tariffed. That’s why no country wants tariffs applied to their imports. Its almost like governments understand how this works.

          • @dgmib@lemmy.world
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            72 months ago

            Ummm no.

            In the real world consumers ultimately end up paying the tariffs.

            Domestic suppliers have a tendency to raise prices is response to increased demand and decrease competition from imports.

            When Trump implemented a tariff on Washing Machines in 2018 during his first term. The price of imported washing machines went up, the price of domestic washing machines went up, the price of dryers… which weren’t tariffed went up.

            Eventually it did led to more washing machines and dryers being manufactured domestically. Which did lead to a small increase manufacturing in jobs. But it was a net loss for the consumers.

            Tariffs function as a flat tax on goods. Like all flat taxes this benefits the wealthy and hurts poor and the working class.

            • @ikidd@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              Well, when it’s been in place and the Canadian economy is in free fall, you can come here and tell me how wrong I and all the governments were about how this works. I’m sure it’ll go totally different than the softwood lumber tariffs that shut down the forestry industry in BC for a decade.

              Here’s the Canadian forest industry take on tariffs. Mostly borne by Canadian producers:

              https://forestresources.org/2024/12/19/a-discussion-around-tariffs-on-cdn-lumber/

              • @dgmib@lemmy.world
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                82 months ago

                I’m confused friend.

                The article you linked to says:

                … Canadian lumber producers would not be able to absorb this, the price of lumber will adjust upwards ….

                Is that not, quite literally, a direct contradiction of your earlier statement that:

                90% of the tariffs will be absorbed by Canadian companies

                And if the price increases, is that not the consumer paying the tariffs?

                • @ikidd@lemmy.world
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                  12 months ago

                  I’m out of energy for this.

                  You’re right, we should just ignore it because it’ll only affect the USians. Maybe we lobby them to make it 50% so it punishes them more. It’ll all be perfectly fine here.

    • @Lumiluz@slrpnk.net
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      112 months ago

      Canada is one of the few countries that has actually defeated the USA. They even burned the white house.

        • “People are surprised, they become indignant. They say: “How strange! But never mind-it’s Nazism, it will pass!” And they wait, and they hope; and they hide the truth from themselves, that it is barbarism, but the supreme barbarism, the crowning barbarism that sums up all the daily barbarisms; that it is Nazism, yes, but that before they were its victims, they were its accomplices; that they tolerated that Nazism before it was inflicted on them, that they absolved it, shut their eyes to it, legitimized it, because, until then, it had been applied only to non-European peoples; that they have cultivated that Nazism, that they are responsible for it, and that before engulfing the whole of Western, Christian civilization in its reddened waters, it oozes, seeps, and trickles from every crack.”

          • Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism
    • @octopus_ink@lemmy.ml
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      92 months ago

      rip you guys are gonna get couped

      Seems to me we got couped. It was just mostly domestically bloodless. So far.

    • @halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world
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      72 months ago

      Don’t act like Canada hasn’t been seeing it’s own share of right wing extremists making their way into government.

      • @Alsephina@lemmy.ml
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        62 months ago

        Yeah no need for a coup really. Without a revolution Canada is gonna be part of this new axis on its own.

    • @coyootje@lemmy.world
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      22 months ago

      Do you really think it’s likely this will happen? I think hell just start throwing a tantrum and maybe symbolically apply some tariffs.

      • تحريرها كلها ممكن
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        2 months ago

        Yes it is likely. Canada can’t afford to resist. Canada is highly dependent on trade with the US.

        Just because I think it is likely doesn’t mean that I think it’s right. This is clearly wrong.

  • @llothar@lemmy.ml
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    132 months ago

    American anschluss of Canada to expand their lebensraum, because they feel they deserve it.

    Musk does not hide how he feels about it, we wouldn’t either.

  • تحريرها كلها ممكن
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    2 months ago

    Canada’s economy is dependent on the US. Trump might actually pull this off.

    Edit: More context since people are downvoting. Consider the following now picture yourself one of the greedy capitalists in Canada, which is a preferred outcome? Losing your wealth or losing Canadian sovereignty?

    Just because I think it is likely doesn’t mean that I think it’s right. This is clearly wrong.

    • @Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca
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      2 months ago

      Canada is also America’s largest trading partner.

      America had $357 billion dollars worth of imports from Canada in 2023, if they introduce a 25% tarriff Americans will pay $446 billion instead because it’s not like you’ll get all that stuff anywhere else for cheaper since America is going to put tariffs on practically every other country they trade with apparently.

      Corporations spend billions on the current infrastructure and trade routes and logistics, they will not uproot everything and go through the pains of firing everyone then moving to America and retraining because of a short term loss. American administrations are fickle, many of them will simply wait out the 4 years hoping it will return to normal then. If it doesn’t then maybe they might consider it then but for the next 4 years Americans are going to be paying a shitload more for anything that’s not made in America.

      American businesses will also find it a lot more difficult to sell their products out of the country when those countries retaliate with tarriffs against them.

    • @humanspiral@lemmy.ca
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      72 months ago

      Canada’s oligarchs like the fact that only Israel and US is allowed to compete with them, and elections are cheaper to buy. A single state makes them lose power. Population understands only negatives from US, and also would not vote for Trump.

      Unfortunately for Canadians, they are still programmed to side with US over China and Russia, and that programming makes it a blasphemy to seek independence that would also protect them from the US. As long as Canada’s position is to beg to restore its fully subservient colonial status, then the Trump extortion will continue.

      One goal that Musk would have behind this is that it can destroy the big 3 automakers.

  • @tourist@lemmy.world
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    62 months ago

    Do you think he wanted to do this last time but ousted everyone who told him that’s fucking psychotically stupid?