Canada and Mexico order retaliatory tariffs on U.S. | Hacker News Reader

Canada and Mexico order retaliatory tariffs on U.S.

pbs.org

21 pointsgeox6 comments

Open articleView on HN

I think we should seek partnership with the EU for our rare earth minerals.

The US apparently doesn't need them- they can buy theirs from China.

Dear EU readers,

You may be next:

* https://www.barrons.com/news/trump-says-will-absolutely-impo...

* https://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-trade-war-eu-ta...

Sincerely, A Canadian

Of course we will be next. This is something I factored in already when he was elected. I read you had a politician that proposed a global coalition where all countries that are being threatened by Trump aligns on retaliatory measures. I think was someone that was candidate to take over as PM? Sounds like a good plan to me.

> I read you had a politician that proposed a global coalition where all countries that are being threatened by Trump aligns on retaliatory measures.

The party that currently leads the (minority) federal government is having a leadership race currently, and one of the candidates put forward the idea:

* https://financialpost.com/news/economy/freeland-summit-natio...

Even if she does not win the leadership, it's worth looking into.

I'm not American and I'm not politically involved on US politics, but I'm curious whether there's a solid rationale behind Trump's tariffs. My gut feeling tells me it might make sense if there’s a plan to onshore a strategic industry or keep a non-aligned country out of US domestic market. However, is there an economic justification for applying a blanket tariff on allies, or is this primarily driven by nationalist sentiment? With unemployment that low the only thing I can think of is that this might generate a lot of pressure on inflation.

Many of these industries would take a decade or more to get running or remotely competitive. But he's also killing all sorts of motivators for domestic manufacturing, infrastructure, and research. And his irrational behavior and frantic changes are discouraging to investors.

Some of these industries, such as aluminum, are genuinely unfeasible in the US due to the facts of geology and geography. Some are not feasible due to labor costs.

The reality is that Trump doesn't understand economy and just latches onto random concepts. In his prior administration, career professionals could reign this in, but since then he has become increasingly paranoid and angry toward "others". The only requirement for his cabinet and civil servants is now loyalty to him, opposition will not be tolerated (see USAID employees being fired for - required by law - refusing access to confidential information to unauthorized SpaceX employees).

So, yes, this is just nationalist garbage.

If you wanted to take it to a conspiracy, though, one could argue this plays into the recent tech billionaire reports that there is a coordinated plan to burn the US economy so they can buy and rule over the cities they build on its ashes.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com