I just want to hit the one major plot point here. It's political only in the sense that it was a knowing criminal activity acting as our ally.
Canada to be singled out only as the example of my point. When we imposed trade tariffs on China it was more a move to stop them from doing pump and dump on our commodities. It was a leveled tactic to stop that behavior, something that should have been done twenty years ago. Well when we imposed the tariff, a not very quiet deal was being made with Canada to reroute exports to Canada with China as the final destination, thus avoiding tariffs, by the same means, coming in and muddying the paperwork to change country of original, getting a Canadian cert and then shipping by rail (where customs is not as strict) to the US. So Canada was given the choice to stop back in March, and they denied doing it in the first place. Satellite evidence and customs inspections of rail cars have proven otherwise. That has led us to impose a Tariff on Mexico and Canada, with the stricter punishment going to Canada.
He who lays with China gets punished. That has been the mantra for almost a year. China refuses to abide by fair trade practices which include NOT USING PRISON AND SLAVE LABOR. It also refuses to abide by not receiving goods by those same means (read:north Korea, Pakistan...Russia...) We as a country are trying very hard to make known the many unknowns about our consumer goods, exposing the companies who have been complicent and countries who have acted as falsified countries of origin on everything from meat, seafood, fruit, vegetables, manufactured goods and electronics. Apple Inc. is the largest american company to knowingly manufacture products made with non fair trade commodities.
The long and short of this is very simple. Every country with a Tariff against it has been committing fair trade violations and acting in a criminal manner. Canada merely proves that point with retalitory Tariffs, they believe at this point that deal they have with China is a better deal than free trade between their neighbors. Ford announced this morning they would cease manufacturing of the F150 and expedition in their canadian plants starting next week while at the same time increasing Ohio and Kentucky productions.
Canada has a per person impact about 60% that of an American. This is due to the absorbed cost of health care and additional burdens to the individual, making their buying power lower than ours. With 20% of our population what exactly do they think they will accomplish over the next several months? Bauxite is found worldwide, canada is merely convenient..., last time I checked Maine, Oregon and Louisiana together produce more structure timber and plywood than Canada already. I understand their plight, the kneejerk reaction even...but they are committing a crime according to what they agreed to with the UN fair trade practices agreement.
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