Summary

Donald Trump launched a trade war against Canada by imposing a 25% tariff on nearly all Canadian goods, including a 10% levy on energy products.

His action, intended to pressure Canada to curb fentanyl flows, contradicts official trade figures and ignores that most deficits result from American demand for cheaper Canadian oil.

The tariffs, set to remain until Canada complies, could cost billions to Canada’s economy and disrupt $800 billion in annual trade.

Canada is expected to retaliate, forcing Prime Minister Trudeau to respond amid escalating cross-border tensions.

  • Windex007@lemmy.worldEnglish
    8·
    12 hours ago

    All AB has ever wanted is scaled access to global markets. Canada gets hosed on oil prices because the US is the only meaningful importer and they know we can’t move it to other markets. They’ll always be in the prime negotiation position as long as they’re the only material customer.

    • Someone@lemmy.caEnglish
      1·
      10 hours ago

      And BC’s 2 biggest issues with allowing a pipeline (depending on whether you’re talking to the province or the people) are that we’d be taking the risk of shipping crude oil through our islands and remote coastlines, and that we wouldn’t really see any local benefits. Building refineries, whether in Alberta, BC, or otherwise, would alleviate our reliance on the US, lower prices (or at least isolate us from major fluctuations from the exchange rate), and make the product less toxic (figuratively and literally) to those opposed to pipelines.

      • Windex007@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        10 hours ago

        I think you’re missing the sheer scale of production capacity, and severely underestimateing how it actually makes the primary issue (logistics) so much worse. Refinement turns the raw inputs into MANY output products, and you can’t mix them, so suddenly you have the same volume of products, but suddenly you need even more complex logistical frameworks to move them. The suggestion of putting refineries in AB when we’re already bottlenecked is the industrial equivalent of hiring a pro athlete to teach a newborn infant to run. There isn’t a conspiracy as to why refineries are all geographically positioned for maximal logistical efficiency: they’re extremely sensitive to logistics.

        If we were going to put a refinery anywhere, it should be in BC. If they’re more comfortable putting other refined petroleum products on ships, sweet. The construction is big money infused into the economy, so is the operation. So is the increased shipping activity.

        Like, Canada is one country, and now more than ever it HAS to be operating at the national level of economic interests. Canada HAS to integrate it’s energy with the rest of the world.