US tariff negotiations with Canada terminated over advertisement
35 comments
·October 24, 2025testing22321
actsasbuffoon
I’ve been waiting to see my countrymen vote in their own best interests for my entire life. I’d be shocked if they started doing it now.
We are astonishingly bad at understanding abstraction. We understand that if Kevin shows up at our house and punches us in the face, we should avoid Kevin. But once you put a layer of abstraction between Kevin and the broken nose, we suddenly become baffled about how this could happen, and then we vote for Kevin.
tgma
> I’ve been waiting to see my countrymen vote in their own best interests for my entire life
This is an extremely arrogant statement to think a single individual can know the best interests of an entire country and to know they were wrong in identifying their own. To quantify this, perhaps one close proxy is to see how many people really regretted their vote after the fact, which in the context of US does not appear to be that many (even those unsatisfied with the outcome post hoc would not necessarily have voted for the opponent if given a time machine.)
Perhaps it is not trivial to have visibility into the intricacies of other people's lives and their priorities. Even harder to generalize it to tens of millions of people in a country.
hackyhacky
The average American loves this, because it allows them to punish their perceived enemies. Cruelty trumps self-interest.
testing22321
How’s that working out for US soybean farmers?
The average American loves this Right up until they lose their farms, their distilleries, tourism-based jobs and everything else.
actsasbuffoon
Considering how much harm he did to farmers in his first term, and they overwhelmingly voted for him again in 2020 and 2024, I’d say they apparently prefer this over the alternative. I don’t expect this to change anything.
wood_spirit
Talking of farming, are there any numbers on if AcreTrader or other similar companies has been buying up farmland, and if so how JD Vance’s investment has been performing?
mirzap
Yeah, but the hubris of American MAGA nationalists doesn’t allow them to see it that way. They’re convinced the world can’t function without them, that everyone needs them.
Anyone with a shred of sense can see where this is heading: the inevitable collapse of the American empire and the end of its unparalleled global dominance. At this point, it’s unavoidable. The U.S. has alienated nearly every ally it once had. Ironically, Trump might be the one who saves Europe in the long run.
re-thc
> Tourism in The US is down to the tune of billions of dollars, soybean exports have tanked, US liquor is basically non-existent across Canada and other countries, etc etc.
It's all tech / AI / crypto focus now.
tgma
> The world is simply moving on from dealing with the US.
This seems to be an emotional reaction by the observer, not a quantified study, so citation needed. The US market is so big and relatively unified in language and regulations and that make you willing to bite a lot of bullets. Have you ever listed an app on the App Store and dealt with French BS, for example, for a relatively tiny market?
> They will all just trade with each other instead.
Many of the US products and services are not as commoditized.
anigbrowl
A better write up with more context (although it's still just as stupid as it sounds): https://www.nbcnews.com/business/economy/trump-canada-trade-...
bruce511
No doubt slapping tariffs on Canadian goods will reduce the flow of said goods.
But that's a reduction, not a termination. US demand for those goods still exist. And it is US consumers that pay.
The reduction is a result of lower consumer spending power. Which will affect everything, not just the tariffed goods.
Some of the goods may end up being sourced in the US. However that won't affect consumer prices, which will remain high. (The whole point of tarifs is to drive up local prices so domestic production can compete. )
Some may be sourced from other countries. But since all countries are being tariffed there are only marginal gains here.
At the same time Canadian producers will actively explore alternate markets. This will (long term) improve Canada's economic security by reducing dependence on US markets.
All the above assumes T won't start negotiating again next week. Which since TACO is likely anyway.
Either way, this will be a long-term gain for Canada and long term pain for the US.
comrade1234
Why doesn't Canada reduce tariffs on Chinese cars? Instead they're making their citizens pay extra for American cars when they could be paying 1/4 price for better quality electric cars.
vlovich123
This seems like poor reporting. It’s far more believable that the ad is an excuse and the real story is this:
> Canada cuts tariff relief on some US cars due to Stellantis, GM ending some Canadian production
https://apnews.com/article/canada-us-auto-production-tariffs...
The ad aired a week ago and Trump said he’d do the same thing and didn’t care. However this development prompted a retaliation. There’s a low simmering trade war that Trump has been waging against partners and these are just excuses he claims so the media doesn’t focus on the actual details of the war but instead on BS culture war topics.
kennywinker
Strong agree. If it was the ads, this would have come when the news about the ads broke, not now.
dismalaf
As a Canadian, I do have to say that we've been putting up tariffs on trading partners' goods and protecting our shitty monopolies as long as I can remember, then whining when others do it back to us.
The situation in Canada is kind of messed up. We literally have trade barriers between provinces, tariffs on a ton of stuff, government protected monopolies and all that has lead to capital either being allocated poorly or allocated right out of the country. Even government pensions put most of their capital in US markets instead of in our own country.
While US tariffs on Canada will obviously lead to economic malaise, I can't say it's undeserved. Hopefully it leads to a wake up call here (it probably won't though, Canadians will just become more and more insular).
It's funny, we've been trying to forge closer ties with the EU and China but again, we are rebuked because we have tariffs on a bunch of their goods.
smnrchrds
Also Canadian here. Have been closely following US-Canada trade for years. What you are saying is news to me. I am leaning towards believing you are simply mistaken, but if you have specific evidence about these two assertions, I would love to study them:
> tariffs on a ton of stuff
> we are rebuked because we have tariffs on a bunch of their goods
I can guess why one might think some of this (tariffs on Chinese EVs directly led to agricultural counter-tariffs from them and dairy trade barriers have always been a source of frustration), but in general, Canada's tariffs and barriers are by all indications in line with peer countries (US, UK, EU, Australia, etc.) and not particularly noteworthy. If you have concrete evidence to the contrary (not just that some trade barriers exist between Canada and its trading partners, but that they are out of the ordinary and much higher than other countries'; and that the world, in particular EU does not want closer ties with us because of them), I would love to study your sources and update my understanding.
aborsy
I don’t think Canada has tariffs notably higher than other countries.
Sure, specific sectors and certain quotes but all countries have those.
csomar
Doesn’t this action from Canada explain Trump rhetoric though? Essentially, Canada is saying that you can only sell tariff-free if you manufacture their. That’s the same thing Trump is pushing for.
beloch
The North American auto sector is propped up by subsidies on both sides of the border.
What the article in the parent post doesn't mention is that Stellantis and GM received massive handouts from the Canadian government to retool factories in Canada, contingent on actually operating those factories and employing Canadian workers. Abandoning them and moving production to the U.S. (because of tariffs) violated their agreements. Hence, no more tariff relief for them.
North American auto companies are between a rock and a hard place right now, but it'd be folly for the Canadian government to let them ignore their agreements without consequence.
TL;DR: It would be more accurate to say Trump tried to steal a cookie from the Canadian cookie jar and is now acting shocked that his hand has been slapped. Canada is merely reacting here, and rather mildly at that. Calling off trade negotiations entirely is clearly not warranted and everyone should expect another TACO Tuesday.
resters
He probably feels powerful harming businesses (in the US and elsewhere) with his tariffs.
His inheritance performed worse than the s&p by a large margin under his stewardship.
He’s not a business man, he’s someone who inherited $450M in today’s dollars and wears a business suit as a costume, and incidentally more makeup than most drag queens.
He’s disgracing everything he touches and the Trump name will be hated and associated with stupidity and bigotry for a long time.
FridayoLeary
[flagged]
anonymous908213
It's fundamentally insane that the conclusion you come to is blaming Doug Ford and not the toddler who would sabotage his own country's international negotiations over a benign advertisement.
The US is going to feel significantly more pain from its completely irrational approach to global economics than Canada is. Canada has historically had a close economic relationship with the US because of shared values, but they do not strictly need a close economic relationship with the US to thrive. There is an entire world out there happy to trade with Canada. Meanwhile the US is alienating itself from every single one of its allies simultaneously.
dismalaf
The US has a much stronger hand than Canada. The majority of our exports go to the US, but only 17% of US imports come from us.
anonymous908213
For now, but that isn't immutable. Canada can build relationships with other nations instead. That's the neat thing about free trade.
verdverm
It's hard to say what the effects are so soon. Americans are starting to wake up to the impact of tariffs, R pols are starting to talk negatively about them, Dear Leader changes his mind quite often, and the tariffs issue is slated to be before SCOTUS (they have often been in the King's corner, but not always)
uvaursi
Play devils advocate with me: how do we know this isn’t staged?
petesergeant
> Play devils advocate with me: how do we know this isn’t staged?
Nobody involved has the attention span.
testing22321
Trump is a narcissistic bully who will change his mind in a heartbeat and who wants mafia like payments to stay in his good graces (look who is paying for the Whitehouse remodel)
If you pander to the bully you will always be on the hook. Every country will be better off just not dealing with them at all. Sure there is some short term pain there, but that’s better than coughing up lunch money forever.
petesergeant
>> Doug Ford, the governor of Ontario in his wisdom thought it would be a good idea
> "Doug Ford’s approval rating rocketed to a four-year high for reaction to Donald Trump’s trade war"[0] (Mar '25)
And, Doug Ford was right. Baiting Trump is a _great_ idea for Doug Ford.
[0] https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/doug-fords-approval-rati...
nawgz
I mean, Canada has had a tepid response to the implosion of their neighbour and relations - I think they have done little outside some retaliatory tariffs and “committing” to a 10 year plan to double trade with non American partners.
Is that really such a bold set of accomplishments that Ford should be shutting his mouth and falling in line behind? Trump could change his mind because Putin or Miller or Vought tell him to, no need to act like precarious progress is precious from my perspective
seydor
yawn.
The world is simply moving on from dealing with the US. It’s too expensive, too much of a pain in the ass and requires mafia like payments. They will all just trade with each other instead.
Tourism in The US is down to the tune of billions of dollars, soybean exports have tanked, US liquor is basically non-existent across Canada and other countries, etc etc.
I don’t know how long this can go on , when will the average American not be able to take it anymore?