AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
Though the CUSMA had a clause (32.10) that allow the US to veto our ability to engage in free trade agreements with so called "non-market" economies.
AoD
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- Thread starter Richard White
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Though the CUSMA had a clause (32.10) that allow the US to veto our ability to engage in free trade agreements with so called "non-market" economies.
AoD
EBT
Active Member
You are right in saying that Trump only cares about the billionaires who pay him millions in Trump's ingenious "pay to play" schemes that include for example suing CBS for tens of millions for "libel". CBS was in the process of being sold to Larry Ellison's son (Ellison is the 2nd richest person in the world). The sale of CBS of course, required approval by Trump's FCC. CBS settled out of court paying Trump $30 million to facilitate the sale of CBS to Larry Ellison's son.
Another similar pending example is Trump's $10 billion lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch in response to the Wall Street Journal (owned by Murdoch) publishing the Trump Epstein birthday card. Despite the fact that this is a completely frivolous lawsuit, Rupert Murdoch may settle out of court for a piece of TikTok. How much is a big share of TikTok worth to Murdoch? If you follow the news as I do you will know that Trump declared recently that Murdoch will be getting a piece of TikTok (along with Larry Ellison). Why would Trump declare that someone he is suing for $10 billion is going to get a share of TikTok at Trump's discretion? I think the answer is obvious.
When King Charles disgustingly feted Trump at a state dinner a few weeks ago Rupert Murdoch was invited at the request of the White House. There is no way the Royal Family would have invited Murdoch to the State Dinner if not in response to a request from the Trump White House. Trump was looking to seal the deal. This is how corrupt Trump is. It is all plain to see.
When it comes to Trumps REAL constituencies, i.e. the people who actually voted for him as opposed to the billionaires who funneled millions to him, American farmers would be one of the biggest constituencies if not the biggest.
Considering all of the above perhaps the best way for Canada to get out of the hell hole we find ourselves with Trump is to get Trump to sue Canada for "billions and billions" and then to settle out of court for a billion dollars deposited to Trump's bank account if he agrees to lift all tariffs on Canada. This would be a bargain for Canada. We need to wake up. We are dealing with a gangster.
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Admiral Beez
Superstar
I can’t help but think of a toddler’s tantrum when I read your posts. We need our Prime Minister and his foreign and trade policy wonks to be out there working the room, building alliances with both the usual partners and the unexpected ones. Remember how U.S. bond yields spiked after Carney’s April meetings with foreign leaders, which rattled Trump and his billionaire backers? That is what effective diplomacy looks like. I prefer the adults in the room to angry theatrics any day.
EBT
Active Member
No single country was responsible for the spike in treasury yields that happened almost immediately in response to Trump's liberation day tariff announcement. Certainly, Canada did not cause the spike that spooked Scott Bessant who convinced Trump to suspend his tariff plans.
Let's unpack Blundells work of fiction:
"Rewind a bit. While Trump was gearing up his trade war machine, Carney, Canada’s Prime Minister, wasn’t just sitting in Ottawa twiddling his thumbs. He’d been quietly increasing Canada’s holdings of U.S. Treasury bonds—over $350 billion worth by early 2025, part of the $8.53 trillion foreign countries hold in U.S. debt. On the surface, it looked like a safe play, a hedge against economic chaos. But it wasn’t just defense. It was a loaded gun."
Mark Carney was sworn in the second week of March. According to Blundell he "quietly increased" Canada's holdings such that "by early 2025" he had increased holdings by $350 billion. How plausible does that sound? Why would Carney do such a thing when all other central banks were shying away from US treasury bonds and instead buying up gold in record amounts. There is a reason why the value of gold has increased by 40% this year!
Trump announced his tariffs on April 2nd and just 2 days later he announced a 90-day suspension of the implementation. This timing alone proves that Carney's fictional meeting Carney supposedly had with EU "heavy hitters" ("Japan was in the room too, listening closely") had nothing to do with the spike in bond yields:
"Carney didn’t stop there. He took his case to Europe. Not for photo ops, but for closed-door meetings with the EU’s heavy hitters—Germany, France, the Netherlands. Japan was in the room too, listening closely. The pitch was simple: if Trump went too far with tariffs, Canada wouldn’t just retaliate with duties on American cars or steel. It would start offloading those Treasury bonds. Not a fire sale—nothing so crude. A slow, steady bleed. A signal to the markets that the U.S. dollar’s perch wasn’t so secure."
Blundells post has aged like milk since it was posted in April of this year. Since then, Carney has folded like a cheap suit when it comes to fighting Trump on tariffs. We don't have any "adults in the room" just idiots which is why we are in the mess that we are in right now.
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zang
Senior Member
He wants people who can enrich him, or protect him. Nothing more.
Trump won by appealing to suburban conservatives, especially in swing states. Farmers don't have the numbers to dramatically shift an election, as they literally account for only about 1% of the US population, and most of the heavily farm-oriented states have long-standing patterns of voting one party or the other. See; the state with the largest agricultural production; California (Blue) and the state with the most farmers; Texas (Red).
Farmers are making a lot of noise and being focused on in regards to the pain of tariffs and immigration policies because they are the front line. Their livelihoods are highly dependent on a smooth flow of trade and cheap labour. Much more so than any other group, and they were the among the first to make noise about what Trump's doing.
I grew up on a farm. I'm sure I still have dirt under my fingernails that I'll never get rid of. Many of our neighbours were very low income. Selling crops (mostly alfalfa, mustard and potatoes in our area) isn't exactly lucrative, and almost every farmer I knew had side jobs. Many worked in the local Inglis, Johnson Controls, and Glad factories. The father of one of my neighbours bought and sold old broken down farm machinery and did mechanic work to make ends meet. His son still does. The ones who lived anything close to a lower-middle class lifestyle didn't have farming as their primary source of income. Many have seen their kids grow up and find jobs that actually make them a living. It's why the median age of farmers in the US and Canada are only going up.
Farmers have always been used as a tool for politicians. They elicit nostalgia and point to a simpler past of hard working white people building a nation. It's less about what they think, but how fondly the rest of the US feel about them. It's why ads targeted to Suburban voters will almost always have a farmer in them. And farmers have often been the first to feel the blade when conservatives get into power.
Yes, farmers do primarily vote conservative, but they generally don't have the money or the political will to make big shifts in politics. They don't often protest and they don't often make noise. That we've heard so much from them in regards to Trump is because the level of pain he's causing is getting to Grapes-of-Wrath levels.
Trade and immigration policies are only now just starting to be seen amongst surburban voters. But that's because they have enough income padding to absorb some of the pain until now. We will see large drops in spending over Black Friday and Christmas. This is guaranteed at this point. We will see further losses of good paying, middle-class jobs.
Today's No Kings is going to break records, and will end up being the largest protest in US history. Why? Because the pain being felt amongst suburban Americans right now is getting too big. The Republicans who think it's okay to boot immigrants and racially profile are still losing their jobs and still seeing high prices at the store. Their loyalty to Trump isn't reciprocal, and he keeps trying to gaslight them that all is alright. And even if they don't agree with left-wing politics, they can agree that their local representation needs to be sent a message.
There's a reason No Kings is eliciting fear amongst the Republicans right now; and that's because they know voters in urban and most especially suburban areas are the ones with the power. Trump himself doesn't care, but local representatives are cowering. They can stop doing town halls and lay blame on Democrats all they want on Fox News, but the reality is the dissent is growing.
The pain from Trump is palpable, and it's now coded "Suburban".
The best way for Canada to get out of this isn't to keep getting into a slap fight with the US, it's diversifying our trade. Even farmers know that monocultures are dangerous.
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lenaitch
Senior Member
I knew a few that didn't have side gigs but, you are right, they are in the minority. The ones that didn't were typically long established (translate: older) and either owned or leased prairie-sized acreage. When your equipment costs five-figures each, you have to keep the wheels turning. I can imagine property taxes, even at the ag rate, around the GTA is a huge cost.
EBT
Active Member
Mark Carney on Dealing with Trump, Trade Wars and Putin
This interview was with Bloomberg TV in London. I made some notes of what stood out for me in the interview:
- Carney repeated the claim that 85% of Canadian exports to the US are tariff free. He claimed that Canada has the "best deal" of any country with an average tariff rate of 5.5%. He claimed in the interview that Trump signed an EO declaring that 85% of imports from Canada are "tariff free under CUSMA". All of this is DEMONSTRABLY FALSE IF NOT BOLD-FACED LIES considering the following facts:
Oil represents ~30% of our exports to the US - Trump has put 10% tariffs on Oil
Autos represent ~25% of our exports to the US - Trump has put 25% tariffs on parts components that were previously tariff free under CUSMA
Steel & aluminum represent ~10% of our exports to the US - Trump has put 50% steel & aluminum
Agriculture represents ~9.5% of our exports to the US - Trump has put tariffs of 20%-25% on agriculture
Lumber represents ~ 3.5% of our exports to the US - Trump has put tariffs of 45% on lumber
Doing the math, we can see at least 80% of ALL Canadian exports to the US are tariffed at rates between 10%-50%. Probably even more close to 100% How can Carney claim "my job is to get the best deal for Canada - we have the best deal of any country. The numbers don't lie. Canada has the worst deal of any country especially when you factor in the fact that 75% of our exports go to the United States. Canada is in a much dire situation than Carney is letting on, and no one is challenging him on his misinformation. Not even the opposition parties. This is not even a discussion in this country.
- When the discussion turned to the Ukraine war Carney boasted that Canada was the biggest contributor of funding to the Ukraine war per capita. WHY? Ukraine is not a NATO country. Canada has ZERO obligations to Ukraine. This was a war provoked by the United States. Let the Americans pay for this war if they want it to continue. At one point in the discussion Carney said Canada was "happy" to buy American weapons to give to the Ukrainians. Let that sink in. Trump declared that he was going to destroy the Canadian economy and is making progress on that promise, and we are sending billions to the Americans to buy weapons so Trump can look like a big hero? Trump suckered the stupid EU and Canada to pay for an American war? Carney might be "happy" about buying weapons from the Americans to give to Zelensky, but I am not, and I can't imagine too many Canadians would be happy about this if they knew about this but of course they don't know because this is never a topic of discussion in Canada. Carney said Canada had been with Ukraine "from the beginning in 2014". As a reminder 2014 is when the US government fomented a coup overthrowing a democratically elected president with the help of notorious militias such as the Azov battalion (google them). Yes, Canada was involved way back then providing training of these notorious militia's that waged attacks on the ethnic Russian population in eastern Ukraine that claimed the lives of 15,000 civilians between 2014 and 2022.
- The Bloomberg TV host introduced Carney by saying: "He was in London to watch Canada's Women play England in the Rugby World Cup Final, unfortunately they lost". Let that sink in. "Climate Champion" Mark Carney flew a government A330 jumbo jet to England to watch a rugby game proving what a hypocrite he is. He doesn't care about his "carbon footprint" only yours.
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chrisw
Active Member
@EBT
Nearly all Canadian oil exports to the US entered duty-free in June 2025, pushing overall USMCA compliance to 92 percent, according to US Census Bureau data.
The disparity is notable: oil and gas exports reached 84 percent compliance in June 2025, a sharp increase from 25 percent a year earlier.
Including all forms of exemptions, 99 percent of Canadian oil exports now enter the US without tariffs.
Article from Aug https://www.wealthprofessional.ca/n...n-oil-surges-ahead-in-usmca-compliance/389934
Auto parts can also be CUSMA compliant.
Nearly all Canadian oil exports to the US entered duty-free in June 2025, pushing overall USMCA compliance to 92 percent, according to US Census Bureau data.
The disparity is notable: oil and gas exports reached 84 percent compliance in June 2025, a sharp increase from 25 percent a year earlier.
Including all forms of exemptions, 99 percent of Canadian oil exports now enter the US without tariffs.
Article from Aug https://www.wealthprofessional.ca/n...n-oil-surges-ahead-in-usmca-compliance/389934
Auto parts can also be CUSMA compliant.
afransen
Senior Member
Go send an email.Mark Carney on Dealing with Trump, Trade Wars and Putin
This interview was with Bloomberg TV in London. I made some notes of what stood out for me in the interview:
- Carney repeated the claim that 85% of Canadian exports to the US are tariff free. He claimed that Canada has the "best deal" of any country with an average tariff rate of 5.5%. He claimed in the interview that Trump signed an EO declaring that 85% of imports from Canada are "tariff free under CUSMA". All of this is DEMONSTRABLY FALSE IF NOT BOLD-FACED LIES considering the following facts:
Doing the math, we can see at least 80% of ALL Canadian exports to the US are tariffed at rates between 10%-50%. Probably even more close to 100% How can Carney claim "my job is to get the best deal for Canada - we have the best deal of any country. The numbers don't lie. Canada has the worst deal of any country especially when you factor in the fact that 75% of our exports go to the United States. Canada is in a much dire situation than Carney is letting on, and no one is challenging him on his misinformation. Not even the opposition parties. This is not even a discussion in this country.
- When the discussion turned to the Ukraine war Carney boasted that Canada was the biggest contributor of funding to the Ukraine war per capita. WHY? Ukraine is not a NATO country. Canada has ZERO obligations to Ukraine. This was a war provoked by the United States. Let the Americans pay for this war if they want it to continue. At one point in the discussion Carney said Canada was "happy" to buy American weapons to give to the Ukrainians. Let that sink in. Trump declared that he was going to destroy the Canadian economy and is making progress on that promise, and we are sending billions to the Americans to buy weapons so Trump can look like a big hero? Trump suckered the stupid EU and Canada to pay for an American war? Carney might be "happy" about buying weapons from the Americans to give to Zelensky, but I am not, and I can't imagine too many Canadians would be happy about this if they knew about this but of course they don't know because this is never a topic of discussion in Canada. Carney said Canada had been with Ukraine "from the beginning in 2014". As a reminder 2014 is when the US government fomented a coup overthrowing a democratically elected president with the help of notorious militias such as the Azov battalion (google them). Yes, Canada was involved way back then providing training of these notorious militia's that waged attacks on the ethnic Russian population in eastern Ukraine that claimed the lives of 15,000 civilians between 2014 and 2022.
- The Bloomberg TV host introduced Carney by saying: "He was in London to watch Canada's Women play England in the Rugby World Cup Final, unfortunately they lost". Let that sink in. "Climate Champion" Mark Carney flew a government A330 jumbo jet to England to watch a rugby game proving what a hypocrite he is. He doesn't care about his "carbon footprint" only yours.
picard102
Senior Member
Maybe if no one else is discussing it, it might be a you problem.
And? Canada should let Russia run over Eastern Europe until it arrives at NATO's door?
Care to let everyone know the rest of the PM's itinerary while in London, or did you just cherry pick to suit your grievances?
kEiThZ
Superstar
Cut them off? No. A mere 10% export tax at the same time as the Chinese aren't buying soybeans would be painful enough. Make it 20% in 6 months if they don't come to the table.
The problem we have in Canada is that the Western provinces are happy being resource exporters even if the rest of us starve.
kEiThZ
Superstar
That's an understatement. Especially in the US. If you have a farming background you know exactly how overwhelmingly right voting rural areas are. And you know that a lot of it is more cultural than economic. Even in Canada, when was the last time most rural areas voted anything other than Conservative? Nothing changes that vote. Even bad recessions. This is also true of core urban areas which are reliably red or orange. Flip sides of the same partisan coin. This is why elections are decided in the burbs.
I lived in Monterey for 2.5 years. Not far from the Central Valley. And guess what, not many farmers voting Democrat in the Central Valley. It's just that, unlike Texas, they get outvoted by the massively Dem voting coastal areas.
Americans haven't learned squat. Maybe if there's a 2007 esque recession you'll see a real backlash. Right now, it's mostly the same people protesting who probably did so the last Trump term and who probably voted for Harris. If we see absolute devastation in next year's midterms that might be a sign. But right now polling says that the Republicans are going to get the normal loss of seats that the Presidential party normally gets. That's not a sign that the American people have genuinely soured on today's Republican Party. Actually, one can make a real argument that Americans are so fed up with certain Democratic policies that they are willing to tolerate some terrible behaviour from Republicans.
kEiThZ
Superstar
EBT
Active Member
Respected journalist Scott Horton wrote a 690-page New York Times bestselling book on the subject titled "PROVOKED". Noted American academics John Mearsheimer and Jeffrey Sachs concur with Horton and have been speaking out for years on the subject as have respected diplomats such as AMB Chas. Freeman and AMB Alastair Crooke. Award winning Hollywood producer Oliver Stone produced the documentary "Ukraine on Fire" in 2016 which detailed the US State Department Color Revolution orchestrated by Victoria Nuland that brought about the Maidan Revolution. None of this is speculation. Victoria Nuland's intercepted phone call with American Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt where she infamously says "F**k the EU" in between her scheming can be found on YouTube. Do you know who any of these people are that I mention above?
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EBT
Active Member
It's a matter of record that Trump put a 10% tariff on Canadian oil and gas. There is no evidence of widespread exemptions. This article details the impact: https://invezz.com/news/2025/02/03/...canadian-energy-means-for-global-oil-markets/. I was surprised that Trump put tariffs on oil, but he was looking for $$$ anywhere he could find it to pay for his big tax cut for the wealthy 1% and 10% is a relatively moderate rate.
Yes, auto parts can be CUSMA compliant, but this is what happened. Under CUSMA an automobile needed to have a minimum 75% North American components. That implies that 25% of the parts could be non-North American and indeed almost every car assembled in North America depends on components from China, Japan, and Europe. Trump put 25% tariffs on those parts in affect changing the rules of CUSMA. The 25% tariffs apply to cars assembled in the US as well but here is where Canada is getting hurt. For cars assembled in the US the car makers are getting a 3.7% rebate off the MRSP sticker price to offset the tariffs put on foreign parts. Cars assembled in Canada do not get that relief which puts Canadian plants at a big disadvantage to American plants. Compounding the situation is a massive non-tariff barrier that Trump put on Canada. Under his "big, beautiful bill" passed by Congress American new car buyers can deduct the interest cost on their car loans but only if the car is assembled in the USA. This is probably why Trump told Carney to his face last week that "American's don't want to buy Canadian cars". Of course they don't. This tax write-off is worth up to $5,000 to American new-car buyers.
Canadian automotive exports are (or were) almost 25% of total Canadian exports to the US. How can Carney claim that 85% of all exports are protected under CUSMA? Basic math tells us this is simply not true.