How Canada could easily make the United States lift punishing tariffs on steel and aluminum – October 20, 2018,
You know what the real problem with the Canadian economy is? We have the United States as a trading partner. If Canada was let’s say in the Oceanic regions next to Australia, we would have had to change our economic policies years ago. Australia is currently having a China problem because the Australian government has become increasingly dependent on the Chinese ever since this consumption based Keyesnian economic world started to blossom. So, in Australia, their governments are being forced to change how they do business.
In Canada what we’re coming face to face with under Trumps America is that Trump is in many respects mimicking Canadian economic policies. There’s this lie circulating around Canada that George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama weren’t low IQ economic morons, that prior Prime Ministers of Canada were taking advantage of. The problem is Canada and Trumps America is that Trump spent 50+ years in the private sector building things, like Condos and Hotels. Guess what you need to build Condos and Hotels? ding, ding, ding, you guessed it Steel and Aluminum!
Feds dead set against ‘ridiculous’ quotas to replace steel, aluminum tariffs – CBC
So Trump knows a thing or 2 about how this entire market operates and chances are he had to make purchases from countries other than America because American businesses weren’t allowed to compete based on some of the multilateral trade deals they signed. Donald Trump actually gave Canada a great opportunity to scrap NAFTA and have our own Bilateral trade deal with the United States, guess what our Liberal government did? They said they would wait on Mexico, Mexico wasn’t so stupid, because Mexico benefits the most from a Trilateral deal with Canada and the U.S so Mexico made sure that they met with President Trump to hammer out a deal.
When the Mexico US deal was signed it put pressure on Canada to sign a deal, so what does this have to do with Steel and Aluminum you ask? Because if Canada had a bilateral trade deal with the United States, we couldn’t be the dumping ground for steel heading to the United States, don’t forget that Canada also has other multilateral trade deals with other countries, when you sign these multilateral trade deals you lose your sovereignty, which is why Canada had to impose tariffs on there other trading partners so they wouldn’t use their deal with Canada to undermine the United States’s new protectionist president.
What Canadians are witnessing with Steel and Aluminum is our dependence on the United States. This is no laughing matter and the United States has a habit of hiring these Donald Trump type presidents every decade or so who completely change how economies are run. The America first economy Trump is creating is going to be embraced by the Democratic Party in the very near future. Maybe not everything, but most certainly Tariffs, because Tariffs help to grow the government and Leftists have no problem growing the government. What’s going to happen in the United States as Trump’s popularity inevitably starts to decline is that special interest groups in the United States are going to go to the Democratic Party and demand more protections for votes.
One day Trump has to leave office, but his protectionist policies without him there are very leftist and that doesn’t bode well for Canadians, because Leftist aren’t as boastful as Trump but they’ll be reluctant to change any economic policy that’s helping to grow the government. In short what this leads to is more of the same problems going forward, and if Canada wants to be competitive going forward it would be wise to lower the cost of living and raise the Canadian dollar.
Canadians forget that our housing market did not crash, lowering interest rates to help Alberta’s economy was a lie, and the low loonie is a Canadian government creation that’s based on corporatism and not market fundamentals. The lower loonie in Canada is there because the corporatists want it there. Interest rates are low in Canada because the corporatists want it low, cost of living is high for Canadians because supply management doesn’t only exist in Dairy, it exists in almost every level of the Canadian economy, Canada is protecting a lot of different industries and subsidizing a lot of large Canadians companies who otherwise wouldn’t be competitive in the Canadian marketplace.
How is the Canadian government getting away with these? Canadians love welfare, Canadians love big government, Canadians love protectionism, Canadians tend to vote Leftist, even the Conservative Party of Canada had to add “Progressive” to their name at one point, this is reflective of where Canada is and why Trump mirroring Canada’s economic policies is such a threat to our economy and oh yeah, don’t forget all that debt Canadians are in, it hasn’t gone away, consumer debt is one thing, but there are a lot of businesses in extreme debt also.
Trump gave us the perfect chance to get out of these multilateral trade deals and we said no, these globalist deals have been working so we’re keeping them in place and Trump basically pulled the trump card and said ok, if you want to play hardball we’ll play hardball so here we are.
If you’re asking what my solution is? Bilateral trade deals and tariffs for countries who currency manipulators, abolish minimum wages(a lot of European countries have already done this) when you abolish minimum wages no other country can have a competitive economic edge on you which allows you base your tariffs on what the market is charging for steel. Unions should only be allowed to exist in the Private sector, under no circumstance should a Union be allowed to form in Crown Corporation, this will prevent Canada from being a corporatist country.
The send a very clear sign to the BoC that Canada will no longer be subsidizing badly run businesses with cheap money, The Bank of Canada’s policies should be based on market and not what Stephen Poloz thinks will help the business sector. As the loonie rises Canada needs to change how it’s schools are run, in most public schools we’re creating generations of socialists, there is no explanation to students about how socialism, communism, and capitalism differ, there is no explanation of what the free market is, what corporatism is and socio-economic impacts of economics in the world. Canada needs a better-informed voter so we don’t wind p repeating the same mistakes twice.
Students should be taught that as an example if you want to save the environment the best way to achieve this is by being an entrepreneur whose business revolves around make the environment better, and that governments have not been the best and solving problems, because even though the government promised to end poverty, poverty still exists. Students should know about trade, bartering and what a trade agreement is, so they’ll be able to see how Canada loses its sovereignty by signing these multilateral trade agreements that create more problems than they solve.
If Canada has an embassy in a country, Canada should have no problem signing a bilateral trade deal with that country. If a group of countries shares similar ideals on trade, this doesn’t mean that a universal multilateral trade deal has to be signed, all it means is that trade amongst those countries should be easier based on the precedence. In that situation, if a country does what Trump’s America is doing which is it all of sudden becomes protectionist, or doesn’t want to play by the rules, we as Canadians can single out that country and charge proper tariffs on their goods entering Canada. We’re currently not in that position with the U.S because our protectionist economy makes us uncompetitive.
Canadians forget higher valued Currency yields businesses and consumers advantages currency manipulators can’t take advantage of, one being if Canada had a higher Loonie our housing market wouldn’t be where it is today. Foreign investors couldn’t afford to purchase Canadian property in such abundance, because first of all interest rates would be higher because if the housing market is booming shouldn’t interest rates be booming also? Of course, they should be, but because Canada is being run by a bunch of corporatists were stuck and Donald Trump is sticking it to us. Be warned Canada if changes aren’t made soon we’re headed for some serious economic problems in the not too distant future.
Interesting times ahead