2d ago

Trudeau tells Trump: Tariff war will shut American factories

www.thedailybeast.com Trudeau Tells Trump: Tariff War Will Shut American Factories

Canada’s prime minister fires back in Trump’s sudden trade war, warning it will hit the U.S. hard.

Summary

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau denounced Trump’s sudden 25% tariffs, warning they threaten American jobs and will inflate consumer costs.

He revealed that Trump refuses to take his calls and sharply criticized claims linking tariffs to illegal immigration and fentanyl crossing U.S. borders.

In retaliation, Canada and Mexico imposed matching tariffs, targeting crucial American exports like auto parts, agriculture, and red-state staples like famous Kentucky bourbon.

Trudeau warned American factories may shut, citing integrated supply chains.

141 comments

Here are some numbers to consider.
The US sold $441 billion worth of goods and services to Canada in 2024.
Canada sold $482 billion worth of goods and services to the US in 2024.
The US has a populating of 334.9 million people.
Canada has a population of 40.1 million people.
Per capita, every American man, woman, and child spent $1,316.81 on Canadian goods and services.
Candians spent $12,019. 95 on American good and services.
Who isn't pulling their weight in this trading relationship?
This isn't about illegal immigration and it isn't about the 20 lbs of fentanyl that tried to cross the border from Canada.
This is about the billionaire class raising taxes on the poor and raising prices for Americans.
- This comment is a copypasta
- That makes sense. And Congress is bought and just watching. Well, between calls to their brokers to buy!
- Source? Does this include energy / oil or only consumer goods?
  
  Google is your friend.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada%E2%80%93United_States_trade_relations

Good.
Imagine after less than two weeks in office, you're threatening and blackmailing other nations into being annexed by you and thinking this makes you the good guy in this scenario.
- Not any other nations, some of your closest allies and trade partners. It's fucking bonkers...
- I doubt he thinks he's the good guy and I'm certain he doesn't care.
  
  Look at his official president photo, he wants to be an evil mastermind
  
  My impression is that he thinks morality is dumb, basically. He's the protagonist of his own story, to the degree you'd expect from a raging narcissist, but not every story has a protagonist that's good.

I really believe Trump is refusing calls from Trudeau like its a power move in a high stakes negotiations. Instead its an idiot, Trump, doing something dumb and an actual intelligent adult is trying to tell him how dumb he is and he won't listen.
- His brain operates like a hamster and wheel. The issue is that the hamster died a long time ago.
  
  That poor thing has been lifelessly spinning for at least 9 years now... Someone should put it out of its misery.
  I know Luigi doesn't traditionally deal with hamsters, but he does have experience with general extermination, so maybe it'll translate.
  Of course I am talking about the Mario bros and their turtle extermination side hustle... For legal reasons.
- He's acting like his allies are enemies and not countries you want to cooperate with for the common good.
  
  Cooperation is pussy liberal shit, a real American dies alone
  
  First you have to have an understanding of “the common good”, which I’m quite certain he is lacking. There is only “the good for me”.
  
  The US's allies ARE his enemies, because his allies are our enemies.
  
  Our allies are sensible and question his stupidity. Our enemies are also sensible and so they applaud his stupidity, because they're our enemies.
  
  When everything in the world is zero sum, there is no cooperation.
  Such a sad way to view the world.
- Or he is doing what his Russian master (Putin) wants..
  
  Yeah, I don't understand how people are confused about this. We KNOW from his last term that the Russians have kompromat on MANY Republicans, or just outright own them. Did everyone forget all the Republican senators flying to Russia together to meet with Putin?
  If you view Trump and Co.'s actions from Putin's POV, it makes a lot of sense.
- It's proof that it's not about the economy which would mean the door is always open to negotiate a better deal. It's not about drugs since Canada could be calling to say, "We've made X changes to reduce drug trade."
  So that begs the question: what is this all about?
  
  So that begs the question: what is this all about?
  Wrecking the economy so billionaires can buy up infrastructure at fire-sale prices?
- A telephone call requires him to respond without his team in the loop. He's not opening himself up to that.
  Since taking office I'm getting more and more convinced that he's in two modes. Teleprompter mode, where his words have been agreed upon by his team, and twitter rant, where he's just spouting his own bile.
  He never speaks candidly in person since winning the election. Even the press room statement after the air crash was a prepared piece with all the hate baked in. Sure he took some questions but they were predictable and mainly deflected.
- Nah, he's just refusing to talk to him because his goal is to tank America and this is a step in it. Funnel all the money to himself and his friends, rape and pillage, and eliminate it as a superpower, threat, or world influence for daddy Putin.
- Maybe he's just mad that his wife and daughter never looked at him the way they looked at Trudeau.
- He also refused to answer calls from Von der Leyen.
  
  He also refused to answer calls from Von der Leyen.
  Maybe he doesn't know how phones work.
  I do remember him talking about writing letters to Kim Jong Un after all.
- His voters like him because he is like them.
- Do you believe the same thing of the Biden administration’s refusal to talk to Putin’s office?
  
  Ah yes, who can forget the longstanding free-trade agreement with America's favourite, peaceful neighbour, Russia. Both sides are totally the same.
- No, he hates Trudeau, who has resigned. Why would you talk to a lame duck you despise?

If you are a Canadian or Mexican please contact your representatives and have them do a more targeted tariff plan. Target American red states directly! Oil tariffs should be universal but anything made in red states and counties should have a 100% tariff. Force industry and goods to flow through blue areas and Trump's support will crumble.
- As the other posters have pointed out, we're already on it. Which, no offence, is a symptom of why we don't want to be part of the US - our government actually works.
  I looked over the official list, and it's stupid detailed. Like, a couple of goods mentioned are papers for wrapping cigars and fitted cases for church bells.
- According to this (see first 2 minutes), they are specifically trying to target red states in hopes of getting republicans to try and intervene with trump.
  
  T came out of the gate, clearly rewarding loyalty and smashing dissent. No red state is going to budge. It's like T watched a CPG Grey on Monarchy.
  And even if they did and tried, he's not listening to anyone but his handlers.
- This assumes the people in the red States would see the chain of causation, which is unlikely.
  It will create an enemy out of the taxing countries. I dont have a better idea but at this point his base will never turn from him.
  
  Trump's base is a lost cause, but the pain may get the soft Dem voters to get off their arses and turn out for the next election.
  Nothing will shift Maga, so appealing to them is wasted.
  
  Justin Trudeau tried to speak to the American people and did play heavy on the lasting friendship between the two countries. Will that dull the backlash against Canada? Trump wants an enemy out of Mexico, Canada, and China.
  
  The number one predictor of electoral outcomes is people's feelings on the economy.
  
  The idea is this will force red state senators to do something. It worked during the Bush administration, anyways.
- https://lemmy.world/post/25026679
- Even 38.3% of Californian voters voted for Trump. The Trump party only has a 9 set majority in the house, and California has 9 of them, all of which are up for reelection in 18 months. Targeting individual states probably isn't that helpful.
  
  Yep and lot of them are from the agricultural counties that abuse illegal labor and need water for their crops and livestock. I was laughing, I know I shouldn't, when the Orange Fucktard released the water. for nothing.
  
  The Republican party isn't acting like they're worried about having to compete in fair elections again. It's also looking like the administration doesn't need congress or the courts, and can do whatever they want.
  
  It absolutely will. Red state leadership only cares about one thing. Money. The moment you start targeting their bank accounts. They'll flip on Trump. Spreading the tariffs across all voting bases is dumb. Yes 38.3% voted for Trump, but that's nowhere near as much as the other 61.7% that actually want a better future for all! Red states are already struggling. Push them to the breaking point first to see how they react. Hurting working class blue voters will only push them right.

If Canada just stopped selling aluminum and steel to the US, it would heavily affect aerospace and military manufacturing.
- Potash and Canada exports a lot to the USA. This would affect the US agricultural sector.
  
  Crank up the prices of 25-50% Potash too, its too short supply to get a different supplier and if they don't use it the crops will fail. The US has worked our relationship carefully for decades to get some huge trade advantages from Canada, and Trump just blew it all up.
  USA has already lost more than they can ever gain.
- Automotive too
- Yeah during Trudeau's speech the only thing I was thinking when he was listing all of Canada's resources is, "are you trying to encourage a US invasion?!"
  
  NATO country invading a NATO country? 🤔
  Does Article 5 still work?

There is nothing other countries can really do about this except impose tariffs in kind. When american inflation goes up I hope Americans put stickers on gas pumps and more eating "Trump did this"
- Canada could start ignoring American intellectual property rights, or shutting off power exports to places like NY.
- I've considered making some for exactly this purpose. This biggest hurdle is I would feel bad vandalizing the pumps and forcing someone else to clean up after me.
  
  Don't feel bad for the gas companies. Also he put an exception on "energy". That's only getting 10%.
  
  Make them magnets
- Though Trump will most likely absurdly blame Biden & democrats somehow and MAGAs will dumbly eat it all.
  
  If they make this year as shit as possible and it evens out next year they can say they saved the failing economy.
- I want to make ones that say "YOU did this" to maybe MAYBE give the trump dummies/non voters a moment of self reflection.
- I'm curious if they're gonna start pulling out of our stock market
- México could send 25% of his citizens.
- Tariffs don't work that way, putting the tariff up was stupid and putting a reactionary tariff up would also be stupid.

He was talking directly to the American People, as he mentioned right before this quote.
But it seems American media is invested in keeping the American people uninvested. Like this is between two leaders and we just get to watch.

Please! We're in dire need of consequences.

Who would risk investing millions into a factory when you have no idea when your materials could be randomly taxed/tariffed. Was literally working on factory plans in Troy, MI when this put a permanent hold on it. Relying on Quebec aluminum like many others. No sense continuing if we have to use Chinese aluminum, just expand the China facility instead.
- I work in automation in SEMI. My idiot conservative boss is convinced that this will help us by bringing manufacturing from Mexico.
  
  Does he not know about the Mexico Tariffs? Is he planning to just become Mexican when the USA goes to shit?

Good. Hit us with your best shot. We deserve it.

It's baffling how foreign relations 101 gets completely thrown out the window by this shining idiot. It is SO important to establish good trade and relations with your bordering countries, and what does this guy do? The exact opposite.
- Some of those relations have taken decades to refine. Now little Donny is playing with a hammer and turning it all to shit within weeks.
- remind you of any sickly potato shaped dickheads in moscow who sit atop thrones of skulls you know?

Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice.

So be it.
I can't wait for the layoffs at my UPS hub. I told them it was gonna happen before the election. His shit business tactics will lead to economic devastation and was poo pooed and hand waved away. Let the hammer fall. Maybe it will wake up people.
- It won't stand a chance of waking anyone up unless we rub it in their stupid selfish faces at every opportunity and they can't get a reprieve from learning about how stupid their fucking choices are. Make sure to tell the trumpists laid off "Your president!" on the way out.

Am I the only one who was reminded of the opening video in Fallout 2?
https://youtu.be/0_BYycHO_6A
- Annexed Canada; lost Alaska to China. Then got exploded a lot.
- Is it weird how many fallout references I've been seeing lately?

Did Donny dickbrain watch the southpark movie and think it was a documentry.
- I'm waiting for him to announce "Operation Get-behind-the-darkies".
- And canadian bacon!
  I just watched it for the first time last week...
  I guess it was funnier in the 90s...

Don't worry, Trump has already thought of that. No one knows more about driving businesses into the ground than him and he is still rich. It doesn't matter that he couldn't come up with cash to pay bonds, he knows more about business and negotiations than anyone. Trust in the well thought out plan!
Trump plays the long game! He absolutely negotiated as he puts it "a very bad deal" six years ago with Canada and Mexico so he could come back and stick it to them now. The brilliance, the genius behind it is mind boggling. It just goes and shows everyone how petty and greedy Canada and Mexico are for retaliating because they just hate Trump.
/S
- Trump is the only person smart enough to play a game of 5D-chess this well.
  /S

The state of most manufacturing facilities is already abysmal. They barely need any help going under.

Orange 🍊
Mangoes 🥭🥭🥭
Bananas 🍌🍌🍌
- Ohh, that’s clever. It took me a moment.

I feel like a good countermeasure to tariffs would be to implement export tariffs. I'm not an economist but if you tax your own businesses exporting to the US and there are import fees on the other end as well, the importer gets absolutely screwed and will have to pass that along to the customer as well. Meaning a 25% tariff in the US could effectively be whatever price Canada wants it to be for the end consumer. Effectively turn the carrot into a stick.

He has to go after the beer to really hurt murica.
- American alcohol is on the list of immediate tarrifs as well as orange juice, peanut butter, clothing, and cosmetics. There will be further tarrifs on dairy, beef, poultry, fruits and vegetables, steel, aluminum, cars, trucks, busses, and boats after a 21 day delay to give time for Canadian companies to adjust supply chains.
  
  I was quite surprised to see coffee on the list. There's only 1 state far enough south to grow coffee (Hawaii).
  That means they import the beans grown elsewhere for processing.
  It turns out that Folgers does its roasting and packaging in New Orleans. It's unclear where the beans are from, but I'm sure it's "everywhere".
  To my friends in Canada, take this opportunity to upgrade from Folgers.
  
  Coupled with the weather Florida has been having, "oranges from the United States" will probably no longer be a thing. They waited until Anita Bryant died. Coincidence? I think not. /s
  
  Great info!

Now that Trudeau intends to resign he sure is a chirpy fellow isn’t he?

Dude, just... shut up and let him fuck over the people who voted for him.
- if only this affected just the people who voted for him...
  
  Yeah, well, I was shocked that he didn't have to cheat this time, and that he actually won the popular vote.
  This is going to disproportionately hit blue collar voters, who tend to vote red. Billionaires will also be affected as stocks tank, since most of their value is disproportionately held in the market.
  Everyone's going to suffer; that's a given. I don't want the suffering to be limited to LGBTQ+, minorities, and women.
- This is going to hurt me, and I did as hell didn't vote for him
  
  We were all going to suffer, but the only hope we have of avoiding slipping into a dictatorship is if the dumb fucks who say "both parties are the same" and the true undecideds who don't pay attention suffer enough to side with the movement to preserve democracy. His base will never change their minds.
  He's raping civil liberties, minorities, women's rights, worker's rights, free press; I think it's selfish to vocally complain about the one thing that affects you just because you're not a teacher, or an immigrant, or gay.
  This is something the while country will feel, and I hope the idiots who aren't in his cult yet still voted for him will pay more attention as a result.
- Targeted tarrifs can be done in retaliation without hurting canada. Like not selling American booze. Canada makes tons of booze we can sell to ourselves

141 comments