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- cross-posted to:
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Summary
US egg prices are rising due to a severe avian flu outbreak that has killed 14.7 million egg-laying hens since January, surpassing all of 2023’s losses.
Wholesale egg prices have surged, with shortages driving costs as high as $8.35 per dozen in California.
Restaurants and bakeries are struggling with higher costs, while grocery stores try to absorb some of the increase.
The issue has become politically charged as Trump and Republicans blame Biden.
So then the smart move for Canada would be to not put tariffs on eggs, to keep them flowing into Canada and prices in America high?
Canda’s interest is, I expect, to do whatever provides the most political leverage on Trump relative to the cost to Canada. If high egg prices are a cost-effective way to do that, then sure. My guess is that there are a lot of factors that go into that, though.
I would guess that if Canada is doing targeted tariffs – which they stated that they were – that the best things to hit are in swing states (which Presidents have to worry about the most), in politically-influential industries, on products that are very visible to consumers, and in areas where Canada can deal with higher domestic prices relatively-well. Given that a major Trump concern in his first term was the auto industry, was what got the most significant change in the USMCA changes, maybe that. They did list vehicles as one of their targets.
This is assuming, though, that Trump isn’t just aiming to get in the news for having tariffs for a short period of time, declare that his policy was a success and that fentanyl has been dealt with, and then pull the tariffs. If that’s the case, then I wouldn’t expect this to go on for long.