Crude oil tariffs in response to Trump’s threats would cause pain on both sides

In Canada’s arsenal of possible responses to a Trump tariff, the nuclear option is the threat to withhold, reduce or place export tariffs on Canadian energy.

Already, the mere suggestion of such a tactic has caused a split between the government of Alberta, on one side, and the governments of Canada and all other provinces on the other.

Tariffs on imports from the U.S. have the potential to cause pain to certain industries and regions, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau himself has acknowledged that the effect of Canada’s import tariffs would be diluted by the size of the U.S. population and economy.

The withholding or tariffing of Canadian resource exports, on the other hand, has the potential to cause real, generalized discomfort to the U.S. — albeit at great cost to Canada as well.

  • socialjusticewizard
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    23 hours ago

    I’m fully in favour of cutting off the oil but I think it might be wise to be careful on that one, and first secure some other places to sell it. We do still need to eat. If we’re not careful this will turn into a siege.

    • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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      11 hours ago

      Also, whenever someone touches oik that the us feels they are obliged to, invasion follows…

      Mind you, they will bever be able to hold Canada, they haven’t been able to hold anything since world war 2 and holding a territory that literally has family and friends, that will never end well for the US.

      But they’d be stupid enough to go for it anyway and it would destroy the US and Canada and for what?

      So that Cheeto and the idiots can get more moneys

      • socialjusticewizard
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        22 hours ago

        the trouble is that if it’s a siege, it goes both ways, and I don’t think in our current state we’re in a position to win it. That may change as we settle in, Canadians are a stubborn and hardy people.

        • Reannlegge@lemmy.ca
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          22 hours ago

          After every war we are in new things get added to the Geneva convention, because of stuff we do, so I say come at us US see what happens.

          • opi@lemmy.ca
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            15 hours ago

            ehhh, I’m all in favour of defending Canada and would die doing so, but let’s maybe stop with the “come at us” stuff.

            The U.S Military would absolutely, without a doubt, completely destroy us in our current state. There is no defending. There’s only retreat, right now. They may not be able to hold all of Canada, but they don’t want to, probably. They’ll settle with Alberta and Ontario.

            Let’s face it. Canada fucked up by neglecting its military. We could argue the reasons why, but the reality is we’re learning a very valuable lesson right now - and it may be too late, too. It’ll take decades to build our defense. Let’s start now.

            We are not the 1.1 million strong of WW2 anymore. We should stop riding the coattails of history and move on.

            • Reannlegge@lemmy.ca
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              15 hours ago

              We had a French sub appear in Atlantic Canada showing at least France is ready for Article 4.

              • opi@lemmy.ca
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                15 hours ago

                I mean, I don’t think the French were here to do a show of force against the U.S. I think they were here to show us the sub because Canada is ready to buy some. Call it advertising. The French aren’t here to protect Canada. We’re alone in this. The sooner we realize this, the better.

                Our best course of action is to put up front the failures of our past decisions and then move on to rectify those gaps. It’ll take time and a lot of effort and willingness of Canadians to join in on the new adventure of defending our nation, but it can be done. In that instance, and only that instance, can we then look to our history of our once great military and work to beat it.

                • CircaV@lemmy.ca
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                  15 hours ago

                  NATO article 5 if the US attacks or tries to invade Canada. I know for a fact the Netherlands would help Canada, France and the UK eventually too. Then it would be WW3.

            • overcooked_sap@lemmy.ca
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              14 hours ago

              Those dumb fucks couldn’t even hold arid lands populated by brown people who didn’t speak English and dressed different. Highly doubtful they could hold anything here without destroying everything and killing civilians indiscriminately.

    • sbv
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      21 hours ago

      and first secure some other places to sell it

      Isn’t most of Alberta’s oil exported as unrefined bitumen and then refined in the US? If that’s the case, we’d need to find a trading partner that can handle our product.

      • socialjusticewizard
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        21 hours ago

        afaik yes, and that’s exactly the problem I’m referring to.

        *gestures to the past 20+ years of me and many like me saying we need to refine this shit locally* — sigh.

      • Oisteink@feddit.nl
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        18 hours ago

        You need to refine it yourself. Exporting raw materials are good for short term profits but you are more exposed to price fluctuations . Look at kora for instance. They seems to have a more stable economy now than when they mostly expected raw materials