Canada, U.S. in 'serious danger' of trade war over Trump tariffs: Bolton - National | Globalnews.ca
By: Global News
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Canada, U.S. in ‘serious danger’ of trade war over Trump tariffs: Bolton
John Bolton says Donald Trump's ongoing comments about making Canada the 51st state is the president-elect's way of continuing to 'troll' Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
U.S. president-elect Donald Trump will take office on Monday and while it's not yet confirmed if he will impose tariffs on Canada on day one, his former national security adviser says there is "serious danger" the two countries will fall into a trade war.
John Bolton, who served as Trump's adviser from April 2018 until September 2019, said in an interview with The West Block's Mercedes Stephenson that the president-elect's threat poses a "serious danger that we are going to fall inadvertently into a trade war."
"I think everyone should understand a trade war is not in anyone's interest," he said.
"The way tariffs work is, it's the American importer that pays the tariff and then tries to pass it along to the consumer," Bolton said. "High tariffs are an indirect tax on American taxpayers. Trump simply does not understand that. So it sounds easy to tax Canada, tax Mexico when he's actually taxing Americans."
Shortly after he was elected, Trump threatened to impose a sweeping 25 per cent tariff on all Canadian goods coming into the U.S. unless Canada tightened border security. The same threat was also made towards Mexico.
Ottawa has worked to address those demands with a plan officials first outlined in the fall economic statement and again detailed on Wednesday, but Trump has yet to back down from the threat.
Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly has said that if Trump goes ahead with the plan, it would start the "biggest trade war between Canada and U.S. in decades."
That idea of such a trade war is concerning, Bolton said, saying that it would be in nobody's interest and that retaliation, while tempting, should be avoided.
Bolton goes on to say that while Canadian officials have warned that the tariffs would hurt Canada's economy, the focus should instead be on impressing upon Trump that such an economic move would hurt the president-elect himself.
"Higher consumer prices in the United States will look like increased inflation and he will be damaging himself with his own base," he said. "If that political argument can be made to him that his own self-interest will be harmed, that would be a winner from the leaders of Canada and other countries that are subject to tariffs.
The former national security adviser also brushed off Trump's previous comments of suggesting Canada become the 51st state, saying the rhetoric was typical for the president-elect and that he often says "completely outrageous things," adding that he believes it's ongoing "trolling" of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The administrator of this group reserves the right, along with the site moderators, to moderate all and any postings to this group, including the right to enforce the ToS, the CoC, and also including anything that the administrator deems within his sole discretion to be offensive, including and not limited to off topic or 'no value' comments, with the power to delete in exercising those rights.
It would be best, therefore, to be civil in posting on this group.
By now it should be well known that I am unable to open certain sources, videos and pictures. If I cannot, I will ask that they be described and explained. If the poster refuses to comply, their comment will be deleted. Instagrams are banned.
Tags
Who is online
81 visitors
Maybe John Bolton was too much of a hawk even for Trump, but IMO he makes sense here. All the tariffs are going to cause will be to make life more expensive for both Americans and Canadians. That just doesn't make sense to me.
A tariff war will hurt both countries.
That's a 'given'.
To learn more, google:
Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act
I 'Binged' it - looking forward to a new depression - people going bankrupt, starving, jumping out of windows. Thanks to a lot of ignorant voters.
Just wait until Trump imposes a 25% universal tariff on all Canadian goods. Besides the threats that Ontario's premier Ford has already announced, such as cutting off the power to a lot of nearby Americans, and the re-establishment of the multiple tariffs Trudeau has said he will impose, this is a new one that is going to have Amercian distillers, wineries and brewers fuming.
Ford tells LCBO to clear U.S. booze from shelves if Trump imposes tariffs
LINK -> Ford tells LCBO to clear U.S. booze from shelves if Trump imposes tariffs | Globalnews.ca
Bolton knows Trump is aiming to start a trade war that is going to hurt, Americans at least as much as Canadians - just watch inflation spike again. LCBO (Liquor Control Board of Ontario) are the only places where alcoholic beverages can be bought in Ontario. Canada has, even BEFORE Trump threatened, reduced the flow across the border substantially. Thiis from an article about Blackhawk helicopters that is linked in the Ford/LCBO article:
AND, as that Blackhawk article indicates, Canada is now complying with Trump's requirements like so:
Black Hawk helicopters, drones are part of Canada’s new border security plan
LINK -> Black Hawk helicopters, drones are part of Canada’s new border security plan - National | Globalnews.ca
So, if that SOB PotUS imposes a 25% tariff on Canada, as if the problem were the same as it is with Mexico, the American people are going to regret experiencing inflation again because of the trade war that self-acclaimed "peacemaker" going to cause.
So, the Canadian government will retaliate by imposing higher prices on Canadians? These damned neoliberal arguments really can't withstand any amount of scrutiny.
I see the neoliberal revisionists have brought up the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act again. That's really bullshit misinformation spread by neoliberals who get rich exploiting cheap foreign labor. There wasn't money available to buy anything, including imports, so the tariffs really didn't make the Great Depression worse.
The only thing that keeps global trade going is access to easy credit and credit wasn't available during the Great Depression. The Gold Standard limited the money supply which meant money wasn't available for credit. Under the Gold Standard, banks were not allowed to create money out of thin air. There wasn't credit available to buy imports regardless of whether or not tariffs were in place. A non-producing economy cannot buy imports without credit. (Unemployment during the Great Depression reached 25 pct and fewer women worked outside the home. The productive portion of the US economy really did shut down during the Great Depression.) Global trade could not have overcome the lack of available credit so the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act really didn't have as big an impact as the globalist airheads want us to believe.
If neoliberals globalists are finally kicked to the curb then the resulting inflation should eventually result in deflation. God help us if the buying power of the dollar increases because that would make credit so expensive the government would have to bail out borrowers to save the banks.
(Yes, indeed, inflation is good for sellers and deflation is good for buyers. And we certainly don't want to give more economic influence to buyers. The whole supply-side global financial system would collapse. That's all about money, to hell with goods and services.)
Yes, whatever. Canada is not America's pussy and if America is going to make Canada suffer, Canada will make Americans suffer, dollar for dollar:
If Trump tariffs Canada, Trudeau backs ‘dollar-for-dollar’ matching response
‘I support the principle of dollar-for-dollar matching tariffs. It’s something that we are absolutely going to be looking at if that is how they move forward,’ Trudeau said.
LINK -> If Trump tariffs Canada, Trudeau backs ‘dollar-for-dollar’ matching response - National | Globalnews.ca
The actual fact is that tariffs do little to grow employment, and all they really do is cost everyone more money - BOTH SIDES.
We heard over and over and over again that American consumers would be paying Trump's tariffs. The unbiased liberal press has told us that Trump's tariffs will punish Americans.
But, somehow, Canadian tariffs are different. Canadian tariffs will only hurt Americans; Canadians need not worry about paying higher prices.
The actual fact is that tariffs makes selling out the United States less profitable. Using American capital to invest in foreign manufacturing and create foreign jobs won't deliver high returns. Why? Because imports have become more unaffordable. US investors cannot undercut US producers unless their foreign partners are willing to take a loss. General Motors investing in Canada won't be as profitable. If General Motors wants to squeeze that extra nickel out of car sales then maybe they should look at production in the US.
Canada is pissed because Trump's tariffs will make it harder to shake down US investors. Canada cannot produce stuff for export without foreign investment capital. So, you see, Trump's tariffs are punishing US investors who sell out the US. Moving US jobs offshore won't be nearly as profitable. If Trump succeeds in cutting corporate taxes again then it becomes economically stupid for US investors to sell out the US.
Let's see what happens when the lights go out in northern States.