Conrad Black: I put in a good word for Canada with Trump. If only Carney could do the same …

border_humper

border_humper

Staff Member
Moderator
Chief Disinfo Officer

President Trump’s tariff initiatives have been overwhelmingly successful and were based on his correct view that it was outrageous for the United States to be running a trade deficit of over US$1 trillion (C$1.4 trillion), the byproduct of indulgent Cold War trade practices that were used as bribes to fragile allies and nonaligned countries not to get too close to the Soviet bloc. As I had the honour of saying to President Trump, the United States has no real grievance with Canada. We are a fair-trading country and the United States does not have a trade deficit with us if energy is excluded, and much of the energy that it buys is at a knockdown price, which it then sells to third parties at a sizable profit. The Americans were right to complain about the absurdity of our supply management system and its associated tariffs on certain agricultural products, as the best way to raise farm income would be through specific income supplements to farmers, not overcharging the whole country for food. The prime minister appeared to be encouraging us to think that this anomaly would be addressed but it has not been.
Click to expand...
Article 34.6 of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement stipulates that that agreement runs until 2036 unless a party gives six months’ notice of termination, so there should be time to work something out. Mark Carney appears to be confining his Churchillian shtick to domestic audiences while being rather mousy in Washington. President Trump has made comments about a U.S.-Canadian union because it seemed to him that since we were not seriously paying for our own defence and then-prime minister Justin Trudeau said the proposed tariffs would cause the collapse of the Canadian economy, it might be a favour to Canadians to confederate the countries. I had the occasion to say to him that it was very unjust to liken Canada to Mexico, which is not only severely complicit in a quasi-invasion of the United States by swarms of desperate people, but was also engaged in the systematic enticement of American manufacturing to Mexico with the benefit of cheap Mexican labour and subsidized factory construction, to export back into the United States fabricated parts from Chinese companies under the free-trade agreement. Trump said: “You have a point.” It is not impossible to deal with Donald Trump. Canadians are waiting to see if our leader wishes to make love or war — and if, in this case, he is competent enough to do either.
Click to expand...
Carney seems completely out of his depth.
 
Upvote 10
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top