Forgoing on Purchases from U.S. Manufactors

[redo75]

I am going to start sending 5 e-mails per day to different US based companies selling products in Canada that I have been purchasing in the past and now will boycott.
I know we are a drop in the bucket for these companies, but I feel they profit from us and I need to vent my displeasure with these trade policies.
Will also ask at point of purchase if these are made with or contain US materials/labour. Will walk away or try a Canadian/European product instead
May not make a difference but I know in the past when I complained some changes were made, did take time but did happen.

[StAnger]

Why not use that effort to send emails to the idiot in Ottawa and your MP? He's the one being difficult, and making asinine demands of the US.

[stangstevers]

This isn't as straight-forward. Especially when talking to gear-heads. There's no Canadian alternative to Edlebrock, Trickflow, MSD, BBK, etc.. Otherwise buy the Chinese copy-cats which is more damaging to both our economies. What else? Not going to use Google? WalMart, Home Depot, Lowes (and now Rona is owned by Americans). Television, gonna watch little mosque on the prairie?

Also the USA are our brothers - we are very much connected, and hopefully this little spat won't last more than a few years. Trump is not entirely wrong and he's there to protect the average American, not globalist interests. Trudeau is a liar and a weak little child, Trump has every right to critique trudeau. The problem is that Canada has a strong positive symbiotic relationship with the USA - now if some of the pillars of that relationship fail (ie. Trade), it will take generations to overcome and bounce back. All we can do is hope trudeau steps away from selfies long enough to grows balls, manhood, a brain and knowledge to help ride the storm.

If you want Canada to be a strong and powerful nation, you need to convince every Canadian to have 10 kids each. Which means we'd have to cut income taxes by a ton (too expensive to have kids here), probably have to go to a more American style health care system and maybe a more organized and smaller presidential system versus British parliamentary system. So you guessed it, this country will forever be a small nation in terms of numbers because fundamentally the country does not have the capacity to grow, other than the 3rd world welfare immigration that trudeau keeps welcoming in - the numbers won't go up. But we survived pre-NAFTA and can do so again with some growing pains but let's not stoop to low levels in the process.

With that said, God bless America and let's hope Canada/US relations come back to the norm and we can all live peacefully again and go back to doing what we do.

[5.4MarkVIII]

is not the cost difference we see more because of tax and duties that our government sticks on top?

but Stangstevers is right, there is very little make in Canada anymore, and even the stuff that is "made in the states" is more assembled there from off shore components

the trade war is one thing I disagree with Trump on, the Americans are blaming Canada for their faulty dairy farms problems, but its something trump ran on so he gonna stomp his feet to get what he wants

[stangstevers]

In this case, I'm not sure if Trump is speaking for the majority, part of me thinks he isn't. At least on Social media the trend is "sorry about this Canada, we're on your side"... I'm not an economist by any stretch but isn't parting ways with the global economy a bad thing? At least the long-term will suffer greatly for the small short-term gain, seems more like a re-election plot than actual economy. There are emerging economies that can be much stronger than the USA could ever imagine to be? Canada has done a poor job at diversifying (I think?)...

[92redragtop]

is not the cost difference we see more because of tax and duties that our government sticks on top?

but Stangstevers is right, there is very little make in Canada anymore, and even the stuff that is "made in the states" is more assembled there from off shore components

the trade war is one thing I disagree with Trump on, the Americans are blaming Canada for their faulty dairy farms problems, but its something trump ran on so he gonna stomp his feet to get what he wants

It's his typical bully tactics - as he's proven for over 2 years you really cannot believe anything he says because he'll lie about what he said 6 minutes ago (eg. the big envelope from North Korea). He's recently gone whacko on both Macron and Trudeau after initial lovefests - maybe it's that abusive boyfriend mindset, he'll beat up on Trudeau/Canada then likely make back up. The US dairy thing is a drop in the bucket to spat over when there are other bigger industries/issues and dependencies (like border security, etc) to worry about. That said, supply side price management in dairy and other agri industries (eg. grain) has been a thorny issue for a long time....the US does it too with massive subsidies (eg. the massive Farm Bill that is near and dear to Republicans). I don't have a problem with letting more US dairy in as long as it's labelled as I'd prefer not to consume it. Historically, most empires have lasted 200-300 years and the US was past the half-way mark in this recurring theme but Trump is accelerating the decline as the likely successors are clearly making their attempts to step up and fill the gaps he is creating (so far China is making the most aggressive move and whether they tip over the US or not they are quickly becoming a steamroller that will change our daily lives, or at least your children's lives from an economic and cultural perspective). Going "alone" on trade is interesting because US-based brands/MNCs can get hurt outside the US if retaliations against "US products" (ie. brands) are imposed.

From Investopedia (my guess is the US reduction % is probably also due to HQs being registered offshore for tax reasons but the MNCs are American with a lot of key operations in the US still):

Though the U.S. still boasts the largest number of MNCs compared to other countries, the percentage of the largest MNCs headquartered in the there has dwindled in recent years. 60% of the world's top 500 MNCs were headquartered in the U.S. in 1962. By 1999, that number had dropped to 36%.

Read more: Why are most multinational corporations either from the US, Europe or Japan | Investopedia https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/021715/why-are-most-multinational-corporations-either-us-europe-or-japan.asp#ixzz5I7q8I1hh
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[stangstevers]

we are all "pok-gai"

[92redragtop]

Yup - there is an Eastern steamroller coming soon.

[FoxRod]

LOL...


https://youtu.be/1zNr8Pf1QkY

[RedSN]

For a "business man" he certainly doesn't seem to have a clue about how global trade works. He thinks he is "making America strong!", but he's just isolating them out of the global market. The world will go on, they will make other trading partners, USA will be shut out of future "deals".

[Laffs]

For a "business man" he certainly doesn't seem to have a clue about how global trade works. He thinks he is "making America strong!", but he's just isolating them out of the global market. The world will go on, they will make other trading partners, USA will be shut out of future "deals".

Tried to explain that to someone on the weekend. He's a hotelier/property developer in one of the most desired cities on earth. He seems to subscribe to the "if you build it, they will pay you" mentality. Might work in those industries but dealing with global economies is another ball game. Not trying to downplay any abilities in those industries but to me this is like expecting a journeyman professional baseball player to be the star of the NFL.

[stangstevers]

Trump is no idiot, so I'm curious as to what his true motives are (outside of ego). I know he was elected for the working class or so was "marketed" as such... Or simply he got lucky because he's "Not Hillary".

[RedSN]

Trump is no idiot,

He's no genius either,
https://i2.wp.com/www.towleroad.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/eclipse_carlson.jpeg?resize=195%2C195

[StAnger]

There’s an excellent excerpt from Maxim Berniers book available free online. He discusses suppply management of the dairy industry. If Trudeau was smart he could use trump as his excuse to dismantle this political hot potato and end the trade was without a shot fired. Worth a read. I’ll look for a link.

Trudeau is trying to use Trump to make himself look like the Babyface in all this...

[92redragtop]

This trade war could be a canny move by Trudeau. he can blame his dismal economic record on it come election time

Yes, this can actually help him in the polls with a sympathy play as well as pointing to the trade war depending on economic impact (even it the $ impact is delayed he is already playing the sympathy card to garner support internally).

[stangstevers]

I fucking miss Harper... Wish people who voted for trudeau could pay a special tax.