Trump slams Canada for being 'highly restrictive on trade'........

washingtonexaminer ^ | 6/01/2018 | Melissa Quinn

[caww]

President Trump criticized Canada on Friday for being “highly restrictive on trade” and accused the U.S. ally of treating the agriculture sector “very poorly.”

“Canada has treated our Agricultural business and Farmers very poorly for a very long period of time. Highly restrictive on Trade! They must open their markets and take down their trade barriers! They report a really high surplus on trade with us. Do Timber & Lumber in U.S.?” Trump tweeted.

Trump said in a statement Thursday the U.S. would only “agree to a fair deal” with Canada.

[Sam Gamgee]

Population density is slightly deceptive though taken on a national average, when 25% of Canadians live in the Greater Toronto Area. Meaning Canada is actually more URBAN than the US is.

[Alberta's Child]

That's true. Canada is more urban than the U.S. even outside Toronto. Something like 55% of their population lives in the ten largest metro areas.

But it's not like the rest of the country is a massive national park. The country has been a major exporter of natural resources for generations. Energy, timber/lumber, precious metals, agricultural products, and byproducts of these resources probably make up almost half of their exports.

[MeganC]

You’re missing the most important US subsidy to agriculture which comes in the form of allowing illegal aliens from Mexico and Central America to work on farms for illegally low wages.

Canada should protest this subsidy immediately.

(No, I won’t be holding my breath)

[Sam Gamgee]

LOL. A sort of unofficial subsidy. Syrians are Canada’s Mexican illegals these days. The difference is these so called refugees will likely end up not working and be on social assistance.

[Scott from the Left Coast]

Excellent summary, Kabar. Very illuminating on the core issues.

[ConservativeMind]

So with whom would a country like Canada have a trade deficit?

[Mr. Jeeves]

I can attest to the fact that their Customs officers at Toronto Airport can make the Gestapo look like a Boy Scout Troop. We had a company conference there, bringing thousands of US $’s into the economy, and had most of the attendees, from Europe and the USA, interrogated for upwards of an hour each. Haven’t had one there since.

I find Canada very difficult to export to. I suspect politically connected corporations make up the bulk of our export volume - they make it hard on small companies who can't evade their bureaucracy as easily.

Which was probably the exact intent of NAFTA - and all other "Free Trade" agreeements. :)

[max americana]

Turdeau is an ass hat. Just like any faggy liberal, he’ll fold like an accordion. His only education is ki instrcutor and drama teacher. Right now he’s pouting like a drama queen.

[ConservativeMind]

It seems to be 20% more than that, but I don’t see it as a big deal.

I do think that being required to NOT post country of origin on foods from Canada and Mexico is completely BOGUS. My wife and I moved on to buying locally-sourced meats after that NAFTA lawsuit from Canada got resolved.

If I don’t want your cr@p meat, Canada, why should I be forced to buy it?

[ConservativeMind]

I am bookmarking your wonderful post.

[Hawthorn]

>> I find it hard to believe any U.S. political leader would even waste his time dealing with a $10 billion annual trade deficit with another country <<

Agreed fully.

But in addition, I find it hard to believe that any otherwise-well-educated person should refuse to let himself be informed about the statistical abstraction called a "trade deficit" -- either the "deficit" with a specific country or the "deficit" with the whole world.

In fact, the commonly reported "trade deficit" is no more than an accounting identity, which could just as accurately be called an "investment surplus."

(You can look it up. Alternatively, you could take the course usually called Economics 201.)

Therefore, as long as the USA has a roaring economy that gives higher returns to capital than just about anywhere else on Earth, we will have -- and we should have -- an investment surplus, which is something that by all laws of logic and double-entry bookkeeping requires us to have a so-called "trade deficit."

In other words, if (like me) you think investment is good, then all you need to do is lean back and enjoy it!

[Hawthorn]

>> They charge them, so we can charge them <<

Yep, when your neighbor does something foolish, you should so the same.

That’ll teach ‘em!

[bert]

The UK?

[Alberta's Child]

Canada has large trade deficits with China and Mexico, a large deficit with the European Union (though there is a lot of variation there, with Canada having a large trade surplus with the UK), and small deficits with many countries that export minerals and agricultural products that aren’t mined or grown in Canada.

[CodeToad]

“Yep, when your neighbor does something foolish, you should so the same.”

I don’t consider it foolish.

Maybe you like to see Americans trying to compete against third-worlders, but I don’t. Go live overseas if you want their products.

[ConservativeMind]

What is foolish about tariffs? They paid up to 95% of the entire federal budget, up to the 1920’s. It kept the federal government much smaller.

Guess what eclipsed tariffs. It was the income tax. The government became the welfare state and the big government of today because of your favorite tax, the income tax.

I know it is your favorite tax, because you love the idea of penalizing people who work and willingly claim taxable income. You love that welfare and gifts aren’t taxed. You love that only US-made goods pay the prohibitively high corporate taxes we’ve had. You love that you can assure a Chinese worker has a job, while your once employed fellow citizen is on welfare, which helps him have to choose the Chinese worker over another US citizen, because we artificially made Chinese goods cheap and allowed China to make US goods expensive.

Your blessed “free trade” has never existed between countries and not even Singapore eliminates them.

I am all for getting products from everywhere. I am also for taxing things from outside to compensate for income taxes on US citizens.

We have little to fear from tariffs, because so many manufacturing jobs have been exported, to have untaxed goods come back. You love this fact.

You love an indefensible position because you love misery of your fellow citizens.

[Hawthorn]

>> Guess what eclipsed tariffs. It was the income tax. The government became the welfare state and the big government of today because of your favorite tax, the income tax <<

In other words, because the income tax is bad, therefore tariffs are good.

Sorry, but the “logic” of your position simply doesn’t compute.

[WashingtonFire]

America WAS the world’s doormat between 1989 and 2017.

No longer !

[editor-surveyor]

.
Tariffs were the chosen mode of financing the government of the first free nation in the modern world.

Since the income tax was fraudulently instituted, we are no longer a free nation.

Can’t imagine what you could have against tariffs.
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