Trump Is Wrong. The US Does Not Subsidize Canada

In fact, it’s the other way around. These numbers show a tariff war makes no sense.

Jim Stanford Today The Tyee
Jim Stanford is economist and director of the Centre for Future Work in Vancouver, and author of the recent report “Who’s Subsidizing Whom? Myth and Reality about the Canada-U.S. Trade Balance.”


U.S. president-elect Donald Trump has pledged to impose immediate across-the-board 25 per cent tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico, even higher tariffs on China and tariffs on other countries as well. He says they will start with executive orders on Monday, his inauguration day.

Initially, these threats were interpreted as a strategy to exert leverage over other countries on a range of trade and non-trade matters, from border issues to defence spending to taxes and regulations on U.S.-based tech giants. That may have been wishful thinking, because Trump’s rhetoric has now turned more ominous.

Reports suggest he may invoke a “national economic emergency” to activate special presidential powers. And he has spoken of using “economic force” to effectively annex Canada, as part of a broader strategy of territorial expansion (potentially including Greenland, Mexico and Panama).

Trump’s aggressive and unpredictable approach means Canadians must take these threats very seriously.

The impact on Canadian employment and GDP from a major across-the-board tariff on our exports to the United States (which constitute the large majority of our exports) would be devastating, almost certainly causing a protracted recession.

More:
https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2025/01/15/Trump-Wrong-US-Does-Not-Subsidize-Canada/