Subj : Re: I watched the 'talk' To : AARON THOMAS From : Rob Mccart Date : Sat Mar 08 2025 01:46:00 RM> The trade imbalance, if you remove the Oil you buy from us at 20% RM> lower than world prices, it's actually a trade Surplus for you. AT>In that case, I'll assume that Trump refers to what the ratio will look like >er we start drilling our own oil (which is one of his plans.) Yes, and you've always had the option of using your own oil but an intelligent country would use as much of a finite resource like oil as they can get at a decent pricefrom other countries to save their resources for when outside supplies start to run out. You have a huge number of oil wells that are found, and then just capped for future use. Using that oil may cause future problems but will bring you some new employment. It's a bit of an immediate gratification and not worrying about the future as much. RM> And the Fentanyl problem, less than 1/2 of 1% coming into your country RM> comes through Canada, and you wouldn't believe the tons of drugs we RM> stop coming across the border FROM the USA, not to mention illegal guns. AT>This sounds to me like the USA & Canada need to work together to combat the i >e then. I don't want drugs coming in from Canada, and I don't want drugs goin >ut to Canada either. The same goes for illegal immigrants and/or other crimin This is true. It should almost be a single service with enforcers from both countries.. Just as a sidebar, today they found 4 illegal immigrants who had entered into Canada (Quebec) from the USA, 2 adults and 2 kids who were on the verge of freezing to death when found, literally just huddled together waiting to die. A lot of people have no idea what to expect up here since the vast majority of immigrants, legal or not, come from much warmer climates. AT>It's my understanding that Canada's liberal party is loyal to China, and part > being loyal to China means to not interfere with China's opium/precursor sal >to American junkies. We definitely do some business with China but we couldn't be further away from 'loyal' to them. We often condition sales on them improving human rights and a number of times they have tried to influence our elections so our relationship with them is very precarious. AT> RM> No border as long as ours can be sealed tight, but we do try, and I > RM> will grant that it needed some upgrades which we are doing now. AT>The rivers should make it somewhat easier. The St. Lawrence River is signific >ly deeper and wider compared to the Rio Grande. Onlya very athletic person wo > be able to swim all the way across the St. Lawrence. Yes, although the St Lawrence and the great lakes only make up a small portion of our border, about 1/3 of the border between our countries, and much of the rest of it is just forest or farmland, difficult to control without building a wall, but fortunately not ll that popular as an area to cross the border.. RM> Trust me.. the person that will hurt the USA more than anyone RM> else is your president. Tariffs are nothing but a tax on you, RM> as well as us, and he is damaging both of our economies. AT>I just don't see the damage yet. I see all the alarms and warnings, but just >damage. Kinda like global warming: it don't feel very hot yet. No, actual damage isn't obvious yet other than thousands of Canadians so angry that they will not be spending their tourist dollars in the USA this year and people looking where their groceries come from and buying Canadian now, even if it costs more. But we are still just dealing with threats and the tariffs keep getting postponed, most likely because of huge corporations and government leaders in your country trying to stop them. If the 25% across the board tariffs come in they estimate it will cost Canada more than a million jobs and the estimate is 1.9 million American jobs plus higher prices on almost everything. The numbers they came up with here is annually in Canada we will spend an extra $1900 or so on purchases and about $1300 for the average American, and the average car price there is expected to go up by between $3000 and $12,000 depending on model. They seem to suggest $6000 as an average. Economic damage is estimated at over $240 Billion but, an interesting thing that's cropped up, we are working at removing trade barriers between out Provinces and the estimate is that that will generate roughly $200 Billion in added business, which of course would be mostly for things we currently buy from the USA. Some sources say that the tariffs will be on more than a $Trillion of your imports. If the tariffs are at 25%, that will put an extra $250 Billion into your government coffers.. I wonder how much of that will trickle down to the average working person, especially the ones who lose their job over it? What Trump seems to want to do might eventually benefit your country, but there would be a lot of pain for possibly decades and it's likely that your next president will undo most of it. The saddest thing is, not only have our countries been good friends for many decades but we could always rely on good quality products compared to buying from especially Asia. Not sure about Europe.. --- * SLMR Rob * What we have here is a failure to communicate * Origin: capitolcityonline.net * Telnet/SSH:2022/HTTP (1:2320/105) .