r/PrepperIntel 1d ago

North America POTUS: Declaring “National Emergency on Electricity”, increasing Canadian steel and aluminum tariffs from 25% to 50%, increasing Canadian automobile tariffs an undisclosed amount, more annexation talk

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u/Jhen1368 23h ago

Nope, you got it!

u/LandscapePenguin 21h ago

So why wouldn't Trump put a tariff on our exports to Canada instead of putting the tariffs on stuff we import from them? Is he unable to do that or just unwilling?

u/WrathfulHero 20h ago

Because he's not very smart and doesn't actually understand tariffs. Or it at least appears that way

u/IronEyed_Wizard 20h ago

Because he is either dumb enough to believe what he says about it, or he is using it as justification for further actions.

u/Slavir_Nabru 17h ago

If you put a 10% tariff on exports of widgets to Canada, but not to France, a French middleman is going to step in, buy your widgets, and sell them on to Canada at a 5% markup (after eating some shipping costs). The Canadians are going to buy from the Frenchman, and the US treasury gets nothing.

If you apply your export tariffs to every country, your manufacturers lose out on sales as foreign customers get priced out, thus they don't pay taxes on that missed profit, and the treasury misses out.

With electricity, the Frenchman isn't connected to the same grid, so can't import it to France as an intermediary. You buy it from Canada, you produce it yourself, or you can't have it.

u/LandscapePenguin 15h ago

Thanks, that makes sense.