this post was submitted on 24 Jan 2025
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Summary

In a virtual speech at the World Economic Forum, Trump suggested Canada could become a U.S. state to avoid his proposed tariffs on imports.

The remark elicited gasps from the audience.

Trump claimed the U.S. does not need Canadian lumber, energy, or vehicles, vastly overstating the trade deficit between the two nations.

He reiterated his intention to impose tariffs, potentially as high as 25%, on imports from Canada and Mexico starting February 1.

Economists warn such tariffs would raise prices for U.S. consumers.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 hour ago

I bet he'll end up sprinkling in a handful of very specific exemptions. These are what we need to slap export taxes on. Doesn't need to be much, but match his 25%. At best it'll hammer them where they need it, at worst it'll keep things fair for all our exporters.

[–] HappySkullsplitter 2 points 46 minutes ago

So much political theater and me without my opera glasses

Cutting off trade with Canada would devastate the US economy overnight

[–] [email protected] 2 points 52 minutes ago (1 children)

Why isn't Canada summoning the US ambassador to demand official explanations?

[–] Madison420 1 points 40 minutes ago

They don't need explanation or translation for "he dumb and doesn't understand money outside of wanting more".

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 hours ago

Since we are talking fantasies: Any US state the joins Canada avoids tariffs.

[–] SirMaple__ 24 points 7 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 18 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Please let this be the trigger for free trade with Europe and all that lovely meat and cheese.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

There was a Eu politician that sugeested Canada join the EU instead

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 hours ago

I’m down with that. I love Canada but I’d Euro it up to avoid seeing Charles on my currency.

[–] r0ertel 91 points 12 hours ago (3 children)

I'm going to keep posting this every time I see a reference to US tariffs against Canada.

https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/15/beauty-eh/

The TL;DR is that tariffs would violate the NAFTA / USMCA treaty in which Canada agreed to respect US copyright law in exchange for free trade. No free trade? Canada doesn't need to respect US copyright any longer and can become a flourishing economy of products to compete with US products that are massively overpriced. Think printer ink and other stuff.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 hours ago

Yes, please, Canadian produced pharmaceuticals + 15% tariff = an order of magnitude cheaper than what we can buy in the States.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

Sweet. Host all pirate sites in Canada.

[–] r0ertel 5 points 7 hours ago

I was thinking to host pirate sites of US movies, software, etc. Get the US companies to tell the orange buffoon to behave or better yet, move the companies to Canada.

I really like the article's reference to manufacturing US DMCA-breaking technologies and forcing devices to host app stores in Canada where the government can declare the 30% Apple tax illegal.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Idk if it's just for individuals, but our ISPs generally don't care about pirating already. I use a VPN to pirate here but just set to another city in Canada. I only even do that because I run jellyfin and have terabytes of downloads a month.

Worst case scenario is the ISP sends you a notice that the media companies are mad, but that's the end of it. They won't pursue anything further because they don't care

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

It’s not illegal to download something, it’s illegal to host something (seeding)

ISPs are compelled to notify you of copyright notices but they can’t hand your information over so you can only get caught if you respond

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

And even if you are dumb enough to respond to one of those emails, the liability is limited to something $50 per title. So it's not worth the money to pay a lawyer to go after anyone. They will however try to trick you into a private settlement.

[–] Doomsider 3 points 4 hours ago

No no no, you must charge every user with willful commercial infringement and penalize them $250,000 per violation. It is the American way!

[–] AngryCommieKender 26 points 11 hours ago

That's amazing. He's going to absolutely tank the US economy in his first financial quarter of his term.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 11 hours ago

I'm willing to die not to join the US.

[–] AnUnusualRelic 19 points 11 hours ago

I still remember fondly the Trump speech at the UN when the whole assembly laughed at him.

I suspect that there's going to be a lot more of that to come.

[–] notsoshaihulud 35 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

Besides this being a distraction, it's more likely that in this case Canada would end up politically annexing the USA:

  • The 2 Senators and 50 something electoral votes for "Canada State" would mean that Canadians would end up controlling US politics. :D

Of course if one assumes that elections remain binding in the Turd Reich.

[–] bitchkat 4 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

And why the fuck does orange numbnuts think that Canada's 10 or so provinces would be one state?

[–] notsoshaihulud 2 points 1 hour ago

Ha! Even more senators! Or should I say SANEators:D

[–] neighbourbehaviour 14 points 12 hours ago

And if we get any representation.

[–] _bac 31 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Canada please join the EU!!!

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[–] [email protected] 79 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Canada if you're listening, you should burn down the white house like it's 1812

[–] MattTheProgrammer 7 points 10 hours ago

Just don't burn Buffalo this time, we'll help you!

[–] [email protected] 80 points 17 hours ago (12 children)

Here's the plan. The Northern US states all join Canada. The Southern Half of US states join Mexico. The US is gone. Canada & Mexico join to become 1 huge nation. (putin shits himself!) And then we deport ALL the conservatives out of North America, and live happily ever after. Problem solved. You're Welcome.

[–] sudo42 4 points 5 hours ago

Deport conservatives to Afghanistan. It's a perfect match:

  • very religious
  • hate women
  • love guns
  • Libertarian paradise. Become a warlord!
  • Don't have to worry about immigrants.

Alternatively, there's Russia. All those AR-15 lovers can get paid to go kill people!

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[–] finitebanjo 8 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

Reminder that Tariffs dont work as a threat to other nations.

The selling price is the same for the seller, they already give the lowest price they can profit from because the modern era allows international distributors to find a demand anywhere, the buyers are the ones paying the import tax for the same goods.

If you were selling and then the buyer had a tariff you wouldn't just agree to take less money as a result.

[–] kerrigan778 7 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

That's not strictly true, they don't "pay the tariff" obviously but they do have to balance profit margin and lost sales. Tariffs are likely to decrease number of sales which does hurt their bottom line, the question then is if they just take a loss in sales, cut into their profit margins trying to lower the price to the US (very unlikely the margins are nearly enough for this to be viable let alone preferable) or increase prices further to offset the lower sales. Probably will be mostly the former with raw material type goods and mostly the latter with high end finished goods.

[–] victorz 1 points 6 hours ago

Right, that's what I was thinking. Surely it hurts the seller. But it also hurts the buyer, so it's like 🙄 well done, Trump...

[–] victorz 4 points 11 hours ago (4 children)

Isn't the point to make the domestic customers choose products from other nations? Why wouldn't that be a threat to the nation that is selling?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago

Yeah but it only really works if it's targeted. Threatening blanket tariffs on countries that represent 60% of all imports (EU, China, Mexico, Canada) takes a bit of the impact away, it's unlikely domestic production could handle all that. Even if it could, why wouldn't American companies raise their prices as much as they felt they now could?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 hours ago

I think it's a "threat" but not a very good one.

There might be 3 brands of toothbrush available to buy in the US but maybe all of them are manufactured in China. If you just tariff everything from China then US consumers will just pay more because there's no incentive for manufacturers to absorb the tariff.

It's a threat to Chinese toothbrush manufacturers because it creates an incentive for other manufacturers to pop up elsewhere, maybe someone will start manufacturing toothbrushes in the US. These toothbrushes would be cheaper than the tariffed ones for consumers to buy, but obviously more expensive than toothbrushes used to be before the tariffs.

In summary, because consumers are unlikely to buy less toothbrushes, they just end up paying more.

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