18 Comments

  1. Mark my words, with guys like Lutnick on the other side of the negotiating table, the CUSMA renegotiation will be a train wreck. It is very likely that [no deal will be possible and CUSMA is finished](https://www.reddit.com/r/Collapse_Eh/comments/1mqljdd/prepare_for_2026_for_cusma_catastrophe/).

    NO DEAL is still better than a BAD DEAL though: remember, anything Canada gives up will be the starting point for concessions in next years’ negotiations. Plus, Canadian businesses will have to rip the band-aid off sometime…. they can’t leave all our economic eggs in one basket forever, they *have* to diversify eventually. Getting shut out of the American market will be tough but it is a lesson they have to learn, and learn to survive.

  2. TopEagle4012 on

    Yes. We have to re-imagine Trump et al being removed from office so that normal sane people can get back to governing as partners.

  3. I wonder if we could leverage the high oil prices currently. Offer them a fixed price to fight inflation coming down the line in return for extending cusma review to 2029.

  4. Regardless if they think the deal is good or bad, the reality is that the last 2 free trade agreements with the USA have favored the USA over Canada.

    If they think Trump’s deal was a bad one, then to me that says they don’t think it favored the USA over Canada enough. Which means they want to bend us over. I hope that does mean we don’t make a deal and we look to the rest of the world to make up the trade we lose by not dealing with the USA anymore.

  5. WishRepresentative28 on

    Once this goes sideways (because Mericas Great) we cut off Potash, Energy, Steel, Lumber trade with US and start sending/buying Euro/Asian products.

  6. External_Excuse_9949 on

    Let’s re-imagine doing business with reliable and trustworthy partners. Stall this fool until he’s irrelevant after November.

  7. theclansman22 on

    Good, if there is anything the 21st century has taught Canada, it should be that we shouldn’t let our whole economic outlook ride upon the whims of 40,000 American swing voters from the Midwest. American has shown itself repeatedly to be a bad partner with regards trade. The quicker we distance ourselves the better in the long run. It will be painful, but we need to start.

  8. They want to balance the trade deficit by forcing us to buy more of their stuff or hand over more of our market. Oh dear oh dear oh dear. Bullies be dumb

  9. DressedSpring1 on

    The reality is that from a political standpoint Trump has fucked up virtually everything he’s touched and announced it was a success. Deficit? Worse. Affordability? Worse. Global standing? Worse. US military dominance? Worse. Middle East interests? Worse. Jobs? Worse. Grocery prices? Worse. Gas prices? Worse.

    And this guy will get up and say he’s winning so much. You can’t find common ground with that, he could throw the US economy into a full on depression and not only be fine with it but tell everyone the economy has never been better. I don’t think it’s possible to negotiate a good deal with someone who doesn’t even act in their own best interests, so we’re kind of fucked here. I expect Carney to protect our sovereignty in negotiations but trade with the US is going to be significantly worse going forward. 

    Our best hope is that nature takes its course and the next guy at least understands the concept of mutual interest, but we’ll never get anywhere with this current administration of absolute idiots

  10. Mundane-Teaching-743 on

    Trump has been clear. He wants tarrifs. He wants all cars Americans buy to be made in the U.S. we need to deal with it. We need to set up a system of mutual, reciprocal tarrifs and look to other countries (namely the EU and China) if we want an auto industry. We also need to build more of our own military hardware and sign deals on this with likeminded allies.

  11. FriendshipOk6223 on

    A bad deal that Trump said it was the best ever when he signed it lol. It should be an incredible challenges to negotiate anything with them given they can change completely their position every hour.

  12. >The USMCA is the largest, fairest, most balanced, and modern trade agreement ever achieved. There’s never been anything like it. Other countries are now looking at it, but there can’t be a border like that because, believe it or not, that is by far the biggest border anywhere in the world, in terms of economy, in terms of people. There’s nothing even close.
    >
    >This is a colossal victory for our farmers, ranchers, energy workers, factory workers, and American workers in all 50 states and, you could almost say, beyond — because it’s all beyond. This is all over the world even though it’s at one beautiful border — where, by the way, a very major powerful wall is, right now, being built. (Laughter.) Okay? I don’t know if I should say that at this particular reading. I know last night it got a very big hand. (Laughter.) Today, they’re a little bit like, “Are we supposed to clap now?”

    -[Donald Trump’s statement on the signing of CUSMA](https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-signing-ceremony-united-states-mexico-canada-trade-agreement/)… The deal his government negotiated…. and he signed….

  13. Any deal has to pass the Senate. If the Dems can manage to take it or break even I doubt they’ll pass a shitty deal.

  14. Just wait him out. Trump fucked up here and lost his leverage. Midterms are coming up and they’re going to lose Congress, and he needs Congress for a review or a withdrawal of CUSMA. The threat of the withdrawl period has lessened a lot in Canada’s eyes now that Trump has completely sewered his reputation with his domestic base, and all under his own doing.

    If the democrats are down with ending CUSMA after all of that, then it’s destined to end no matter what we did. But I find that unlikely.

    Trump has until the midterms to find any “wins”. After that, he’s going to be in a situation where he’s fighting Congress everyday for 2 years.

    With that being said, Canada is best to just drop a *”Seen.”* strategy with him and just play coy and wait out the clock. Don’t engage, he will just escalate and put peoples careers at risk. Try and ignore him and be like how he views countries like Greece.

    (He likely forgets Greece exists in the day to day. Be like Greece. Or Iceland, or Faroe Islands etc).

  15. alice2wonderland on

    The CUSMA, previously known as NAFTA, was not always in effect. It was driven by several overlapping economic and geopolitical pressures, notably lobbing from large international corporations and the rise of global trading blocs in the EU that led to “FOMO” in North America. Both the U.S. and Canada had spent the late 1970s and early 1980s struggling with stagflation, and the NAFTA deal was supposed to be our way forward. In addition, NAFTA is widely considered one of the most significant “building blocks” of modern globalization. While it was a regional agreement, it functioned as a laboratory for the neoliberal economic policies that would eventually define the global era.That said, not everyone wanted to jump on the NAFTA and globalization bandwagon. There was some resistance from “fringe lefties” worried about what happens when mega-corporations “globalize” and there’s no meaningful capacity for domestic production. If there is one thing positive about the pressure on CUSMA it’s that this forces Canada to think seriously about diversification and self reliance.

  16. Trump is reneging on his own deal. What’s the value in pursuing a new deal with him if he’s just going to renege on that too?