Canada Refuses Last Minute Trade Demands From Trump And Ends Talks

I’m not a big fan of Canada’s Prime Minister Carney, the guy who blew two housing bubbles: one in Canada then another in the UK. He’s a neoliberal’s neoliberal.

But unlike most he is neither stupid nor a coward.

It was looking like there would be a Canada/US trade deal, and honestly? I was worried what Canada had given away to get it.

But then according to Carney (the US denies, but the when the Trump administration’s lips are moving, they’re lying), they added a bunch of last minute additions.

These are pretty close to annexation without the troops: the US would control Canada’s trade and have first call on all its minterals and would have altered our internal laws to suit them. I’m particularly intrigued by America wanting an end to Quebec’s language sign laws: what the hell does that have to do with the US?

It’s always hard to tell what is going on in the Trump administration, but these demands seem calculated to force Carney to refuse. He’d lose the next election if he agree, the backlash would be immense. Certainly he would have been crush in Quebec, and without Quebec he has no route to victory.

Moderately sane and informed American officials would know this. So, normally, one would assume they deliberately spiked the talks.

But this is the Trump administation, full of some of the stupidest and most ignorant people on Earth, ruled by a senile old man with the attention span of a grasshopper on cocaine.

So maybe they really figured “Canada has to do what we tell them to!’

Instead, the vast majority of Canadians support Carney, even prairie westerners who usually hate his guts.

And fortunately it worked out for the best. They pushed a strong hand way too far. The truth is that Canada has a ton of trade with America and is very vulnerable.

But the longer term truth is this: there’s nothing Canada buys from the US it can’t get somewhere else, often for a lot less (hello China) and there’s not much Canada exports that it couldn’t sell to nations other than America. We’re in a bad position because against the opposition of the majority of Canadians a feckless previous Prime Minister signed trade deals with the US which increased integration.

But what was done can be undone, because Canada is not naturally dependent on America.

One argument I keep hearing from Americans is that Canada needs America to defend it. To which the answer is a question: “From whom?”

The truth is that no one but the US is actually an invasion threat to Canada. Second biggest country in the world. Separated by large oceans or thousands of miles of land from every country in the world except America. The only nation America protects us from is America, and that’s what’s known as a protection racket.

Generally I don’t believe in making deals with Trump. No deals at all. He doesn’t keep his deals and if you make any concessions he always assumes that means there’s more to be had and comes back again with more threats.

The task for Canada is, indeed, to diversify away from the US. Trump is doing us a favor. If he’d offered a slightly shitty deal, we’d have accepted it. If he’d asked only for the moon, not the stars, he’d have gotten it. By making demands no Prime Minister could accept without losing the next election, demands which amount to “we control your trade relations with everyone else going foward” Trump made it possible for Carney to tell him no on the entire package.

And while that will suck for Canada; while Canada will be hurt by a trade war: it’s forcing us to do the right thing rather than put it off or do it slowly.

So I’d like to thank Trump.

“Thank you President Trump, for being a complete and utter asshole with the IQ of a squash and no empathy or kindness at all  Any President slightly smarter of slightly more able to understand other people could have had Canadian elites giving them cheap everything Canada has an integrating with the US even more. But you keep showing why that’s impossible and stupid.”

Now we just need a strong military deterrent. We have a lot of mountains and Iran has just shown us how to use them.

What I write here is for the benefit of everyone, but alas, I live in capitalism and I, and the site, take money to keep running. If you value the writing here and can, please subscribe or donate.