We are on our own....

[northfarmer]

The US and Canada still have a massive trade deficit with China. China needs access to the largest consumer market in the world for their goods, which is North America.

China needs this market more than we need them, but they have been playing us for a long time.

Negotiate yes, but do not bend at the knee. They are communist imperialists loved by our current PM here in Canada which is not good.


Hit them where it hurts if need be. They do that and more all the time to the people they trade with. Finally nice to see a leader play a little hard ball with them.

[jazz]

bucket . . . this trade war is just the beginning of a tectonic shift in international technology and trade and re-balancing of global power. Must agree, we are on our own, but not unfixable over time. The U.S. can do little to reverse the rise of China in technology. Tariffs are not the answer (IMO). China has already surpassed the U.S. in some technological sectors.

What we need a strong political leadership. You negotiate with China, you do not threaten. The question now is; how deep is the incoming recession and how long? Trump’s ag strategy of purchasing all crop and giving away to humanity is far strung and would cost the same as another wall. This is a spending president that has no regard for public debt.

Errol I think you misunderstand the US. They will not back down, nor will they lose this. How much collateral damage is the only question.

To win the cold war the US had to outspend militarily. Now it will have to do that and wage an economic war at the same time which will include tarrifs and subsidies. That's better than having a real war. The debt is secondary to those concerns. This is a bigger play than just some trade. China needs to be checked here and now and they are no where near as strong and dominant as you think. They are more house of cards than you realize. A socialist country with a export dependent economy can be targeted easily.

[TSIPP]

What’s a wall cost? 5 billion divided by 300 million people is like a little more than 16 bucks. It’s all political and nothing more.

When you have a money printing press what does it matter?

[errolanderson]

bucket . . . this trade war is just the beginning of a tectonic shift in international technology and trade and re-balancing of global power. Must agree, we are on our own, but not unfixable over time. The U.S. can do little to reverse the rise of China in technology. Tariffs are not the answer (IMO). China has already surpassed the U.S. in some technological sectors.

What we need a strong political leadership. You negotiate with China, you do not threaten. The question now is; how deep is the incoming recession and how long? Trump’s ag strategy of purchasing all crop and giving away to humanity is far strung and would cost the same as another wall. This is a spending president that has no regard for public debt.

[bucket]

Meanwhile....the steel industry will extract the 2 billion promised from either government to tide them over until the pipelines are built...

Shareholders have to be paid you know...they are large contributors to the major parties one way or another...either from management or the unions...the parties are going to support the steel industry..


And since we have a Quebec ag Minister...dairy won't be left out as both liberals and conservatives have made the pledge of 3.9 billion for supply management...

[ajl]

This downturn will make te 80"s look like a sunday afternoon picnic. So long debt levels were low the 80's were fine as there was ad hoc programs for a little cash along the way. This time, there is lots of credit available so guys will try to produce their way out but that results in more and more surplus production unless a weather event intervenes. No help from Ottawa as they are either clueless or deliberately trying to destroy farming in the west. Batten down the hatches, because this is the big sh!t storm.

[bucket]

After reading this statement...

"Dumping products in developing countries is not the way we do things,” Canadian Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau told reporters on a conference call from the G20 meeting in Japan, adding such efforts required multilateral coordination.

“It seems easy, but it is complicated to do it the right way,” Bibeau said. “Obviously, it may create some distortion in the market and this is what we want to avoid.”

Thats right its better to write cheques to third world dictators and have them buy food from someone else or more guns for their century old internal wars...

We already have market distortion from the soybean file and the incompetence of this liberal government with so many of our trading partners...