President says US will impose ‘reciprocal’ duties but no new specific tariffs are announced
www.theguardian.com
trump campaigned on lower prices. But rather than do that, he starts a silly war with many allies with tariffs. trump is not a smart man. Even the WSJ admits he knows nothing about money. He will stoke inflation. But his MAGA cult will blame someone else.
Initially there might be a slight increase it will depend on other economic factors as well. I presume they will require a "catch up" period or domestic ramp-up, cancelled contracts to operate domestically etc.
and/or foreign companies having to cut into their profits to meet the price that domestic companies can sell at.
That would be best for the consumer and your job market but there are many unknown variables I certainly can't account for as I'm not an industry expert but more of a general prognosticator.
Trump is probably going to speak to these steel and aluminum producers in America and encourage them attempt to expand and flood the market (or the companies will do so themselves if they have visionary leadership). Since they will now enjoy a higher market share. If they do this,
it should drive the price down and as well they can basically run the same game China plays when they try to flood markets and make it difficult for their competitors. Factor in decreased transportation costs depending on the locations of these factories as Ontario is quite close to your N.E high population areas and who knows?
If they get spending down and extend the tax cuts and decrease further regulations, it would also do wonders. He also can apply the tariff revenue to the annual deficit and/or industries in need as required, a luxury he doesn't currently have outside of the Chinese tariffs.
Many assume Trump will have to give in eventually as the pressure of big businesses locally increases, but it's difficult to know, he seemed entrenched so we will see. I've been following Trump for the vast majority of my life and he has been speaking about tariffs since he was at least in his 30s, perhaps earlier, so he is ideologically on-board with this approach.
In fairness, the U.S debt and massive trade deficit has forced his hand and even the next president if the world is going to maintain a strong America and avoid WWIII.
Canada has to produce value-add and decrease barriers to compete, I've been screaming this since I was a young libertarian so in the long-run I HOPE we learn lessons from this.
In a perfect world, America would gain jobs and everywhere, including in the U.S, tariffs would decrease so it would be a win/win for businesses and consumers.
The value added tax (VAT) that the E.U applies will definitely come down if they want to avoid these issues. Also, China operates on a multi-prong manner of abusing the U.S through heavy subsidies, artificially keeping their currency cheap, tariffs and other underhanded means which dwarf any threat of any other nation. I would gladly share these details with him as it is a subject I'm fairly informed on and it's no disrespect to China they are a wonderful nation and culture, but they are exploiting. The Japanese did as well in the 1980s with their corporate espionage but they never kept the yen low.
Canada is not your biggest problem on trade, China and Mexico are far more of a problem. Unfortunately Trump seems focused on trying to get the best deal in the 2026 USMCA (or CUSMA in my country) as possible, so these tariffs could continue for at least a year, perhaps longer if Trump decides that this is the new path forward and decides to walk away from free trade, which I don't instinctively think he would.
Canada should hire me and I would reach out and sell our country better than those who have gone there have. I would have to exclude the abuses against me and others quite frankly. I certainly couldn't negotiate any worse than the current crop of premiers and we definitely need a new general election soon to give Trump a new voice to discuss these issues with.
