Donn Beach wrote: ↑Thu Mar 13, 2025 2:16 am
Michael K. wrote: ↑Wed Mar 12, 2025 6:33 pm
Someone smarter than me is going to have to explain the outrage. I mean, I just found this.
Before President Trump took office, what tariffs did Canada impose on U.S. goods, and what percentages were there on various products exported to the US?
Before January 1st, Canada had tariffs on certain U.S. products, primarily in sectors protected under its supply management system. These included:
Dairy Products: Tariffs ranged from 200% to 300% on items like milk, cheese, and butter to protect Canadian dairy farmers.
Poultry and Eggs: Similar high tariffs were applied to chicken, turkey, and eggs.
Grain Products: Some grains faced tariffs, though these were generally lower than those on dairy and poultry.
So, Canada charges the shit out of us, 200 to 300%....but we are the devil now that we are going to add tariffs? What am I missing here?
https://thefulcrum.us/business-democrac ... ffs-canada
This is in fact the point I think people miss, Canada isn't charging the shit out of us with their tariffs, they are charging the shit out of Canadians. They are the ones paying the tariff, not Americans. It's trump that is charging the shit out of you by imposing tariffs. A tariff is a tax applied to buying from a foreign source. Canada's tariffs make things more expensive for Canadians, trump's tariffs make things more expensive for Americans.
An example would be here in the Philippines. They grow sugar cane here, there's a sugar industry. You would think that make sugar cheap but it's not, it's incredibly expensive. That's because of the stiff tariffs imposed to protect it from foreign competition, it's become inefficient but they aren't willing to let it die. That's the thing, tariffs don't make sense. They are used basically to try and halt natural selection. Instead of allowing an industry to be replaced by a better more efficient one. Tariffs shrink the economy and raises prices for consumers. It's basically politics interfering with having an efficient economy.
So if Trump put mirror tariffs on the Phillipines would it hurt the US more or the Phillipines? They'd probably just drop their tariff eventually right?
Seems like without doing what Trump is doing that's the problem. If country's want free trade with the US, they can have it.
If they want to impose tariffs on our goods, we'll charge their goods.
And eventually, we win.
Either by getting more domestically produced products (not sugar, I know), or getting them from places that choose to have free trade with us.
We don't need the Phillipines. We don't need Canada. We don't need Mexico. But they all need us.