Trade Wars Brewing in Economic Malaise – washingtonpost.com — You can’t have NAFTA and this sort of thing going on simultaneously. Make up your mind!
Is this what the first trade war of the global economic crisis looks like?
Ordered by Congress to “buy American” when spending money from the $787 billion stimulus package, the town of Peru, Ind., stunned its Canadian supplier by rejecting sewage pumps made outside of Toronto. After a Navy official spotted Canadian pipe fittings in a construction project at Camp Pendleton, Calif., they were hauled out of the ground and replaced with American versions. In recent weeks, other Canadian manufacturers doing business with U.S. state and local governments say they have been besieged with requests to sign affidavits pledging that they will only supply materials made in the USA.
Outrage spread in Canada, with the Toronto Star last week bemoaning “a plague of protectionist measures in the U.S.” and Canadian companies openly fretting about having to shift jobs to the United States to meet made-in-the-USA requirements. This week, the Canadians fired back. A number of Ontario towns, with a collective population of nearly 500,000, retaliated with measures effectively barring U.S. companies from their municipal contracts — the first shot in a larger campaign that could shut U.S. companies out of billions of dollars worth of Canadian projects.
Found by Aric Mackey.
So…. I guess you won’t be buying any more Canadian oil… eh?
Meanwhile, Canadian exports of peas to the USA are up … to meet the growing needs for American brain transplants.
1,
ZING!
LET them CUT the import of canadian wood, to the USA..
the USA ships its wood to CHINA..
watch price hit the roof.
3,
Hey, with amount of tariffs you put on the wood we SHOULD cut the trade…
In recent weeks, other Canadian manufacturers doing business with U.S. state and local governments say they have been besieged with requests to sign affidavits pledging that they will only supply materials made in the USA.
That’s not entirely correct. They are signing statements saying the “company who is selling the goods” is an American company AND the goods are produced in America.
We resold some goods, made by an American company, distributed by an American company who is owned by a foreign company (so I guess technically they aren’t an American company anymore). The distributor cannot sell them the goods because all their owner-company’s bank accounts are in the Cayman Islands. So we handled the paper — which my lawyer said was legal and the government agent said was legal. So, I guess that means I won’t go to jail 🙂
Do you have any idea how much MORE the government paid for those goods because of the hassle? I just had to go through that entire bureaucratic mess (or at least my CFO did) so I am familiar with this.
It’s a lot harder to grift off an non-American, non-union company. Congress is just watching their own pocketbook, nothing to see here.
I heard this the other day. If you have to put a pin on your character with the guy’s name on it, you’re not a very good cartoonist.
Whenever the Can $ tanks way below the US $, the US buys milk from Quebec.
This will definitely be interesting development.
5,
BUSHjr installed a 25% tariff on canadian wood.
according to NAFTA, there is NOT supposed to be ANY tariff.
Yes, Obama the moronic (as he’ll be known in future history books) really understands foreign relations…
Globalization removes barriers to world trade. The idea is, every country gets to do what it does best and the uncompetitive industries die. You can create an economy based on a zoo model, of endangered industrial species, like in France, but sooner or later you’ll have to shoot and eat them all to survive.
To advocate buy American* _leads to serious problems_*.Those who have never studied *mineral economics* are the ones who put forth such advocacy. No nation is independent of all industrial raw minerals. The US has an abundance of only a few minerals. Other nations have an abundance of there own kind of minerals. All nations combined make up the over 100 raw industrial minerals. To obtain them there must be international flow of economic goods and services. Less than that will lead down the trail to starvation.
Moreover for too long our religion has been work, work, work to keep the rest of the world alive or from shooting us. Why not turn this around and allow them to do the work. Export all our manual labor of manufacturing. They are human. Even with our help; they still live in famine. They too would like to earn a living and share in the international flow of goods and services. Why can’t we adjust to loafing by creating new ideas for them to manufacture and we finance with international letters of credit. Ship us xxx …amount of these products to these standards and this check will cash. We learn to _engineer, plan,develop finance and market the output_. I have described briefly what is happening and what will be like it or not.
Americans are quick to assimilate and adjust to this by learning new occupations that fit this pattern. Those who do not will of course suffer. Of course here at home there will always be the things like a plumbing repair, electrical repair, building a house, run a bulldozer, drive a truck, teach students etc. etc. cannot be done by someone in Africa, India or anywhere but here in the US.
Try this one on that email list chain letter about buy American. I see nothing wrong with advocating it; but it is equiv
12,
OR you can get some WHITE guy to go over and set up an industry thats been CURTAILED in the USA, for pollution.
With CHEAP labor and NO regulations you can PAY people BARELY min wage for the region, and they cant QUIT.
You can even take money and invest in a few schools to get education up. $1mill US is ALOT of money over there..
Hmm, I wonder if THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED..
Should ask,
Union CARBIDE..
3M
and many others that went to MEXICO, INDONESIA, INDIA,…
Yeah, that’s right we make so much from Canada that we have a trade deficit, right. Now if we could just get ride of China, maybe we could have a few jobs here that American’s will do.
Oh, yeah forgot American’s won’t do any job, at least for the wages they pay in India or China. Yeah, let’s see how Globalist President Hussein handles this. I’m sure we will cave like every other time, unless China says we can do otherwise, we don’t won’t to piss off China they might not lend us our money back… You know them being Commies and all they have an interest in our continued Good Economic Performance.
Whatever…….
TRAAXX
Canada is a country because we said so.