The single biggest trading partner of the United States, namely Canada, is facing a huge fight ahead as newly-elected President Donald Trump looks to flex his muscles and make us pay 25-per-cent tariffs.
He’s paused those tariffs for 30 days now, like he did with Mexico – but don’t be fooled into believing there won’t be any.
We can certainly take those 30 days to breathe in and out, and try to work out something better, but Trump isn’t going give up a cash cow like this.
Canadians may be forgiven for feeling like this is an unfair fight (which it is), but for the simple reason we have one hand (or possibly both) tied behind our backs.
This tied-up feeling is courtesy of our own prime minister, Justin Trudeau, who resigned and pro-rogued Parliament, and is mulling over tariffs we could be levying to retaliate if and when those tariffs come calling for our dollars.
By refusing to bring Parliament back when Canada is facing such a crisis is bad enough, but he’s going to make major decisions that will affect our economy while being in limbo, as it were.
Trump, in his zeal to steal millions of our dollars, is of course overlooking how much his country needs of our products and resources, including our oil and gas. He’s also going to hurt the economies of many of his own states, as a number of governors have been trying to tell him.
Canada could overcome this issue around oil and gas, if we had actual leaders who supported an important industry like our energy sector, instead of openly trying to kill it and penalize Western Canada.
But no, instead we have no means of moving our oil to be shipped to countries other than the U.S., so we have a major disadvantage right there.
Gas prices in the U.S. are set to jump significantly if we do end up getting tariffs on our oil and gas – but Canadians will hardly have sympathy when we’re facing our own completely ridiculous and unjustified price jump, due to the carbon tax hike coming on April 1.
Trump’s reign, Part 2, has only begun, while (we hope) Trudeau & Co. are on their way out, so the next few years could get really interesting.
