It’s about destroying the international soft power of the US and isolating as a nation. He’s withdrawing the US from the post-WW2 order that has kept the world at relative peace for 80 years.
I never understand the response. If tariffs aren’t good and only hurt the country that is imposing them, then why is Canada responding by putting tariffs on American goods? Wouldn’t you just let America hurt itself in its confusion?
It obviously hurts the exports by artificially lowering demand by artificially increasing the cost on the importer. So it definitely hurts both. But layoffs are easy to make headlines over.
But it makes people feel better by imagining it only hurting the US.
So,I hate to admit it, but let me go against the pack here. Tariffs unfortunately work as Trump is claiming they work, but not for the reason he thinks. You see, while the US customers are the ones that will fit the bill, this isn’t the whole story.
Canadian businesses will try to lower their prices to stay competitive. And our governments (federal and provincials) have already stated that they will help businesses and workers as much as they can, probably with subsidies.
Every time a Canadian businesses lower it’s price to stay competitive with the tariffs and every time our governments pay subsidies to help with that, Canadians are effectively paying for Trump’s tariffs. (Note that this will have been 100% true with a small tariff, but 25% is too much to absorb, so part of the cost will go towards US customers).
With that in mind, counter-tarrifs makes perfect sense, but the assumption here is that US and states governments will help US businesses hit by the tariffs. We may be wrong on this part
Tariffs obviously have their place. They have to be appropriately used. Using them just after coming out of record inflation is not the appropriate time.
Wouldn’t is be more like the fan blowing his piss onto the poor and middle class Americans? He has absolutely no consequences to care about here.
You would put tarrifs on the items that are imported but also made locally, or also imported somewhere else.
