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| 69 Cat
To say that Canada did not participate in the USMCA agreement negotiations is just wrong. The negotiators of all three counties came to a rough consensus of a deal that Trump was not happy with choosing to take a further shot at Mexico at the end. The US and Mexico ironed out the changes through the artful negotiation of son in law Jared and Canada signed on. Why else would Trump have a obsession with Canadian trade negotiator Christa Friedland who was the "nasty woman" in negotiations.
You are right to point out that the first we heard that **** was going to hit the fan again was when Trump said he would target Mexico and Canada with a 25% tariff if they did not control illegal migration and drugs crossing into the US. Despite posing a tiny slice of the border problem Canada has presented a proposal to toughen border control. Good enough? I don't know. If it was easy to clean up I am sure the US would enforce its own laws. The deal goes both ways.
Since then the whinging coming out of Trump has turned this from that initial concern to the "freeloading" that Canada is supposedly guilty of. Have you have not heard that?. Here is Trump speaking just yesterday. https://globalnews.ca/news/10973971/donald-trump-canada-tariffs-oil-... Containing the exaggeration and just plain b.s. that your fearless leader is famous for.
Here a a few facts
The 200 to 250 billion dollar US trade deficit (Trump's number) with Canada was actually 55 billion to end of Nov 2024, 64 billion 2023, 78 billion 2022, 47 billion 2021 https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c1220.html
Most of the deficit is due to oil exports from Canada to the US - about 4 million barrels per day - about $138 billion in 2023 . This is hardly a burden to the US since you are exporting 10.5 million barrels per day. In other words your refineries and export apparatus are I am sure making a buck on every barrel we send you. https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=727&t=6
In fact many of your refineries are much more efficient on heavy Canadian crude. You refine ours and export your more valuable light crude. A little long but good read. https://www.cgai.ca/the_co_evolution_of_the_canada_us_oil_industry_a...
The Canadian US auto trade balance is about equal. You don't need our cars and we don't need yours. However, working together to build cars works for both countries.
If oil is taken out of the mix I read a figure that the merchandise trade balance is actually in the US favor about $23 billion.
In an interview this week Trump complained about Canadians wanting a piece of an icebreaker contract. What the hell is he talking about I thought. Here is the story on that. https://www.forbes.com/sites/craighooper/2025/01/10/the-ice-pact-and... Apparently we could work together and save a few bucks but DJT wants it all.
So in summary Trump wants more than Mounties stopping a few illegals and pounds of fentanyl . We will just have to grab a bag of popcorn and watch the show. Only Trump knows what he is after.
Michael Ledeen was an American Foreign policy analyst. He is credited with espousing the the Ledeen Doctrine."Every ten years or so, the United States needs to pick up some crappy little country and throw it against the wall just to show the world we mean business". I guess it is our turn.
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Canada largest foriegn buyer of US Ethanol
