• kava@lemmy.world
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    24 hours ago

    What would you consider a sufficiently forceful response?

    So far Canada has taxed something like 10% of American exports into Canada with threats to increase that if Trump does not remove the initial tariffs.

    Trump is threatening to tax all Canadian exports into US. And 80% of Canadian exports go to the US.

    To summarize: US put a tariff on roughly 80% of all Canadian exports (there’s nuance here, like a few exclusions and certain goods have lower tariffs like oil)

    Canada retaliated by putting a tariff on a little less than 1% of all American exports

    Canada has a knob they can twist that goes up all the way to 10~12% of American exports. They can’t go any higher than that.

    They’ve decided to start very small, even though Trump is threatening virtually everything.

    The risk is if you go too high, Trump may increase his tariffs from 25% to a higher number. Amplifying the economic pain and potentially triggering an immediate recession with millions of job losses and the collapse of various industries.

    So what’s the correct number? How do you stand up to a bully but also avoid an economic crisis?

    It’s a very dangerous game and I do not envy your new banker PM. That’s why Trudaeu was so happy when he was leaving with his chair lol.

    Mexico is taking a more muted response. They are in an even worse position.

    • Rob Bos@lemmy.ca
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      16 hours ago

      Well, I’m in no way an expert, but I expect there are asymmetrical responses we could take that would have much more impact on the USA than on Canada. Might just have to get a little creative.

      For instance, revoking copyright and patent agreements would be a bit nuclear, but would destroy FAR more value for the USA than it would create for us.

    • Peruvian_Skies@sh.itjust.works
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      22 hours ago

      None of the choices here are good, but clearly bending over and letting Trump fuck everyone is worse than the alternatives. China is also not going to take this lying down and they have a lot of potential for damaging Trump because so much of the USA’s manufacturing is outsourced there and they can more easily compensate with other partners than Canada can. If Canada, China and Mexico stick to their guns, together, long enough for the American people to do something about this idiot, then things can still work out.