Tariffs, Tuesday’s only story
The coming of the U.S. tariffs is Tuesday’s only story. La Presse has a dossier plus a piece on immediate impacts to our daily lives. Le Devoir also looks at how things will change. 24Hres asked and answered the simple question what tariffs are.
The Gazette’s Andy Riga considers how the U.S. president’s volatility is provoking instability in Quebec, and news of Canada’s retaliatory tariffs is also coming.
I’ve seen a report that U.S. products are being removed from SAQ shelves.
su 11:55 on 2025-03-04 Permalink
Looks like we are now forced toward
the opportunities of a localized no growth, sustainable economy.
Joey 12:06 on 2025-03-04 Permalink
I suppose if you’re looking for a silver lining, this global trade war will probably lead to a slowing of the growth in carbon emissions.
Nicholas 12:27 on 2025-03-04 Permalink
There are basically zero waits for commercial vehicles in both directions at all major US and Canadian border crossings. I don’t know if this is normal, I usually only look at the passenger column, but still.
The Atlanta Fed has a prediction algorithm for the current quarter GDP growth in the US, called GDPNow. A month ago, it was over 2%. Now it’s at -2.8%.
And there is some non-US local news in La Presse: Quebec is giving the go-ahead for the East End transit project: a suburban tramway, mostly not grade-separated, that will cost more per kilometre than most rich countries pay for urban metros. Imagine what we could build if we could get metros for the cost of Spain, Italy, France, Scandinavia, Japan, etc.
su 12:35 on 2025-03-04 Permalink
Thanks for the good news about GDP growth Nicholas ! Let’s hope this is the end of free trade and all it’s malign societal effects.
Ian 18:45 on 2025-03-04 Permalink
Good news for solarpunk I guess. I hope Lufa starts growing more tomatoes 😀
Chris 20:33 on 2025-03-04 Permalink
>this global trade war will probably lead to a slowing of the growth in carbon emissions
That is *far* from certain.
I’m no free market fundamentalist, but markets are often efficient. If now we decouple our economy from the proximate USA, we’ll end up transporting our imports/exports from farther distances, we’ll end up making goods here that could have been made more efficiently there (and vice versa), etc. It could all add up to more energy consumed than before.
Ephraim 23:01 on 2025-03-04 Permalink
Funny how no one seems to remember that tariffs were exactly how the US started the great depression.
roberto 09:25 on 2025-03-05 Permalink
Can we just accept and start working within the idea that “Trump is intentionally crashing the economy”. It’s very intentional. This isn’t 5D chess he’s playing.
su 09:49 on 2025-03-05 Permalink
You mean economic warfare? Scary considering the likes of Oleg Deripaska having made inroads into PPP contracts in Canada ( ie transport in Ontario, and mining in northern Quebec) in recent times.
Joey 11:03 on 2025-03-05 Permalink
@chris yes, but you can’t turn the economy on a dime – in the interim phase, economic contraction should, theoretically I guess, lead to lower emissions. If Trump is hellbent on destroying the world (if he isn’t, he should consider it, he’s a natural) then those reductions could be much longer lasting
@Ephraim everybody except Trump and his acolytes remembers
Ephraim 11:05 on 2025-03-05 Permalink
Honestly, he may be setting us up for a better future in the long term, if we don’t rely on the US and we start to charge more for our raw materials. Diversifying our economy can’t really be a bad thing. And opening up ourselves to other trading partners isn’t necessarily bad. And since spending money on the border obviously had no value to the equation, maybe we shouldn’t bother spending that money.
Also, I question if we should put in place a replacement for the GST that is only on services (Value Added Service Tax… VAST), so that we can tax services that are imported. I mean, why shouldn’t services that are imported be taxed? A tariff on services.In fact, we could have a lower rate for services provided in Canada and a higher rate for imported services. So 5% on domestic services that are wholly within Canada and 10% on services that are not 100% Canadian. And require that all data be securely stored in Canada under Canadian privacy laws to have the lower rate.
walkerp 12:02 on 2025-03-05 Permalink
This absolutely could be a good thing (though with a lot of pain along the way for sure) as structurally diversifying our economy and investing internally could result in a strong country. Unfortunately, the Liberals are so lacking in imagination and beholden to corporate interests that I would not bet on them once again totally fumbling the ball. I predict a bunch of reactive, short-term moves that do nothing to fundamentally rebolster the middle class plus a ton of bail out money that will create other problems down the road. I really hope I am wrong. They had a mandate for real change already and did almost nothing except when the NDP forced them to.