Canada fights back with tariffs

crit13

Electoral Member
Mar 28, 2005
301
4
18
Whitby, Ontario
Transportation costs would eat up and competitiveness we would have.

Not to mention, our fruits and vegatables would rot by the time it got there.
 

Reverend Blair

Council Member
Apr 3, 2004
1,238
1
38
Winnipeg
I thought we have already won several cases against the U.S. at the WTO??

We have. They appeal until the appeals run out, then launch another suit on the same issue from a slightly different angle. It's an attempt to tie things up in court until we give up and concede to their demands.



How can you say they need us more? There is a huge trade both ways, but it represents a much greater percentage of our GDP than theirs! Like it or not, we are the mouse sleeping next to the elephant.

We supply key resources. Without our energy, their factories close. They don't have the capacity to replace our natural gas or electricity. They can replace our oil, but it will be much more expensive and come from less politically-stable places. That also goes for raw materials like wood and minerals.

What we have is the ability to shut down their manufacturing ability in the northern, and increasingly southern, states. We can also seriously affect their food production because of their agricultural practices and our production of potash.

At the same time we have other markets for our oil, could use our gas and electricity to meet domestic needs, and could trade with other nations for most of our needs even while expanding our own manufacturing capabilities. That trade would also affect US exports, further damaging their economy.

Look at the beef situation. As soon as we started talking about opening our own slaughter facilities and exporting our own product into foreign markets, the big US slaughter houses started lobbying for the border to open. George Bush suddenly wanted it open too. That isn't because they need Canadian beef to meet domestic demand, it's because they cut it up and export it. We would be taking away their foreign markets from both ends. A Montana judge ended the border opening because the people he looks at come election time are ranchers, not slaughter houses.

I'm not saying that it would be painless or wouldn't hurt our economy in the short term. I am saying that we are much more capable of weathering a trade war than the US is because what we get from them is non-essential or available elsewhere and what we sell to them can be sold to somebody else.
 

Reverend Blair

Council Member
Apr 3, 2004
1,238
1
38
Winnipeg
RE: Canada fights back wi

That's okay, Vanni...I'm sure Bill O'Reilly will remember us anyway. ;-)

the US complaining about trade practices is laughable. The idea that they'll go balls to the wall with China, who basically owns them, is hilarious. They are pandering to certain sectors of the electorate...practicing for the mid-terms.
 

mrmom2

Senate Member
Mar 8, 2005
5,380
6
38
Kamloops BC
Another reason to hate the US goverment !All Canadians should read that post and see how there sticking it to us :x
 

Walrus

Nominee Member
Mar 20, 2005
67
0
6
Victoria
crit13 said:
I would agree with Mike. We need them more than they need us.

80% of our exports are bought by the US. If they decided to shut down the border our economy would be non-existant.

They would face some hardships with energy but that would just speed up the Alaskan oil fields and import more oil from Iraq.

Lets not forget that oil will eventually run out and the US is by far the country that spends the most on R&D. They may suffer for a few years, but once they develop and mass produce alternative fuels, we can kiss our economy along with the ME's economy good bye.

We have an advantage over the ME though because we are more able to adapt. A large portion of our GDP comes from energy exports but almost ALL of the ME GDP comes from oil or natural gas.

You've been listening to FOX & O'Reilly too much. Canada is the United States' largest trading partner. Canada is the largest supplier of oil, natural gas, electricity, coal, and uranium to the United States. If the United States shut down the border between us and them, certainly it would hurt us badly but it would devastate the US economy since we supply them with somewhere around 40% of the total energy that they consume. With China becoming more of a consumer of raw materials we could probably make up the loss of trade witrh the US through them - the biggest concern becomes that the Americans would take what they want through force, something that is far more likely and which we can't defend against.
 

no1important

Time Out
Jan 9, 2003
4,125
0
36
57
Vancouver
members.shaw.ca
RE: Canada fights back wi

We need to aggressivly start trying to trade more with China and other countries for our resources. America always stated we were their friends but we are not. They stab us in the back at every opportunity. We need to wean ourselves off being so dependant on them for trade. They do not give a rats ass about us, just their own protectionist goals. They pretend to be our friends when they need something. Like power, natural gas etc.....

They are not our friends. American are isolationists, they do not respect International Law or Trade Laws, even when they know they are wrong. They just use and take advantage of other countries in the world and with the EU, Japan, Canada etc fighting back it is obvious the rest of the world is sick and tired of America's behaviour.

The rest of the world could function quite nicely if everyone stopped trading with America. But America could not function if that happened. "W" has pushed the rest of the world away from America.....
 

crit13

Electoral Member
Mar 28, 2005
301
4
18
Whitby, Ontario
We need to aggressivly start trying to trade more with China

The worlds leader in human rights violations?

America always stated we were their friends but we are not. They stab us in the back at every opportunity

They are the first ones on the scene whenever we needed them. Why do you think we can get away with having a military the same size as Fiji's?

The rest of the world could function quite nicely if everyone stopped trading with America.

It's one thing to be anti-Americam but let's at least be practical. Do you think that it's a coincidence that the entire world goes into recession whenver the US does. The fact of the matter is, the US makes up 40% of the worlds economy. Over 90% of all life changing inventions and discoveries have occured in the US since 1900. Including the computer and the internet that you are playing on right now.

Did you know that the internet which the entire world depends on so greatly and is the provider of millions of jobs was a US military invention?
 

Reverend Blair

Council Member
Apr 3, 2004
1,238
1
38
Winnipeg
They are the first ones on the scene whenever we needed them. Why do you think we can get away with having a military the same size as Fiji's?

Like WWI? How 'bout WWII...for a while there was even a question of which side they'd fight on. Maybe they were first in Rwanda? Nope, in fact they blocked other countries from sending help. How about Sudan where they blocked attempts to pass a resolution to try people at the ICC until yesterday. They finally abstained...did not vote for the resolution...under guarantees that Americans who commit crimes in Sudan won't be tried at the ICC.

First on the scene my ass. They show up at the end.
 

Walrus

Nominee Member
Mar 20, 2005
67
0
6
Victoria
crit13 said:
We need to aggressivly start trying to trade more with China

The worlds leader in human rights violations?

According to who?

crit13 said:
America always stated we were their friends but we are not. They stab us in the back at every opportunity

They are the first ones on the scene whenever we needed them. Why do you think we can get away with having a military the same size as Fiji's?
Read Rev's comments - in addition, we have never, I repeat never, asked the Americans for military aid. We have been invaded by them (twice), had attacks launched from them by third parties (the Fenians), and been accused of being a breeding ground for terrorists. As a matter of fact the only country ever to attack Canada directly has been the United States and they still remain the highest threat to attack Canada.

crit13 said:
The rest of the world could function quite nicely if everyone stopped trading with America.

It's one thing to be anti-Americam but let's at least be practical. Do you think that it's a coincidence that the entire world goes into recession whenver the US does. The fact of the matter is, the US makes up 40% of the worlds economy. Over 90% of all life changing inventions and discoveries have occured in the US since 1900. Including the computer and the internet that you are playing on right now.

Did you know that the internet which the entire world depends on so greatly and is the provider of millions of jobs was a US military invention?

My God - you never cease to amaze me, the way you pull these amazing numbers out of the air to support your arguments - :roll:
According to numbers from the World Bank (last published numbers are from 2002), the United States economy had a Gross National Income (GNI) of $9.6 Trillion out of a Global GNI of $43.7 Trillion - giving it approximately 21% of the Global GNI, half of what you are claiming. As far as your claim that the United States has contributed over 90% of the life-changing inventions, I won't even bother to start to list how wrong you are because it would take up too much space. They also provide nearly 50% of the military exports to developing nations ($90 Billion out of Global total of $188 Billion in 2000) Talk about your 'life-changing' inventions 8O

Reverend Blair said:
First on the scene my ass. They show up at the end.
You forgot to mention that they are also the first to claim credit when they are on the winning side and first to deny their involvement when they are on the losing side :wink:
 

Ten Packs

Council Member
Nov 21, 2004
1,505
5
38
Kamloops BC
My God - you never cease to amaze me, the way you pull these amazing numbers out of the air to support your arguments -

According to scientific studies, 73.6% of statistics used in debates are made up on the spot.... whoops! make that 73.7%.


:lol: :lol: :lol:
 

Jay

Executive Branch Member
Jan 7, 2005
8,366
3
38
Re: RE: Canada fights back wi

Reverend Blair said:
Jay, there is a lot of evidence that trade would have grown more, and more equitably, without NAFTA. Read Mel Hurtig's books.


Thanks for the book suggestion.


I know if it were up to me, I wouldn't have signed NAFTA, I would have gone about it differently.

The one time I vote Liebral was when they said they wouldn't sign the agreement, and would eliminate the GST.

I learned from my mistake, and I will not make it again.