I wasn’t saying you are. Mitch made the suggestion that something (presumably fuel) was superior from Canada. I share your sentiment in terms of quality, so I genuinely want to know.

My understanding is that Canada has a superior logging industry than the US. It doesn’t matter if I’m right, but it serves as the example to my point. Lumber is an important resource. If Canada has a surplus of lumber that the US needs, fine, sell away. But if people start to buy Canadian lumber at the loss of US lumber, we need to talk. Is it because Canadians have a more efficient model? Is it because Canadian lumber has an unfair advantage, from say government subsidies?  If it’s the former, the US needs to redesign its laws to allow lumber to compete. If American unions demand $40 an hour and benefits and Canadians do it for $25, the American market needs a wake up. But if it’s something else that unfairly disadvantages US workers, the federal government needs to step in to level the playing field. Capitalism and free trade only work on a level field.

It’s the same reason we should put seasonal tariffs on Mexican produce when American farms can make and sell the same item. If it’s the middle of winter, Buy all the tariff free oranges you want. But in the summer, American oranges should be preferable to another country’s.

This is most apparent with China and microprocessors. We’ve allowed them to take over at the detriment of our own manufacturing abilities. Sure, intel designs them here, but they’re made abroad. That’s not intelligent trade, and if we need to create tariffs or provide subsidies for our own domestic production, I’m all for that.

I agree with you. The same applies to the US. America shouldn’t import a single drop of fuel if it’s exporting fuel. Same for Canada. Canadians should come before Americans in Canada.

Neemo, I’m not anti Canada and I’m opposed to any actions that hinder our alliance. But the US accounts for 73% of your exports and 63% of your imports. To deny your country is almost entirely reliant/dependent on the US is absurd

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-g7-s … SKCN1J5107

That’s the G7 statement Trump didn’t sign. Half of it is gender inequality nonsense and reads like a statement from a student union at any public undergrad.

I don’t know what to think. I don’t know what the statement said, so I can’t say if I disagree. I do understand that America keeping Americans employed is important, and we should encourage goods that are made in the US before similar imported goods. Yes, we should compete and have trade that is mutually beneficial. But we can never put the interests of other people, regardless of how close we are with them, before our own citizens. You can disagree, but be honest and acknowledge you disagree Americans should come before anyone else in their own country.

If what Trump is saying is true, and we have major trade imbalances that harm Americans, (and I’m not universally conceding this point) we should renegotiate our trade systems. Automation is coming. Like for realz. 50 years from now so much of our daily lives will be automated and handled through AI. Robot butlers who cook and clean. Auto driving vehicles that pick you up and drop you off. Alexa as your personal assistant. And probably the majority of labor style jobs. Not to mention a revolution in education and medicine. How far off are we from intelligent cat scans that gathers our vitals and analyzes our blood and quickly diagnoses an ailment and quickly resolved it?

It’s going to be a different world and if we have any chance of successfully managing that transition without mass violence, suffering and revolution, we need to be able to reasonably control domestic production.

We already supplement every other western nation’s security. More so than any other nation, Canada’s. Robotics is going to change that soon in case you’re not paying attention. We can’t continue to supplement the other nation’s economies too. Access to the world’s largest economy is pretty enticing in its own right. We should attempt to renegotiate trade deals with individual nations to maximize our benefit positively.