Trade Deficit hit $64 billion a year with Canada -- that just ended

What Canada Has Been Doing to American Farmers for Fifty Years

The numbers got so bad that by 2023, the goods deficit hit $64 billion – the worst it had been since the George W. Bush years. And Canada's weapon of choice has been the tariff. Trump called out the dairy tariff specifically, and here's what that actually looks like in practice.

Canada built a wall around its dairy market in the 1970s to protect Canadian producers, then designed a quota system so restrictive that American farmers can't get anywhere near the cap that would let them compete.

American auto workers in Michigan and Ohio built their careers on an industry Canada has been quietly undercutting for twenty years – protecting its own market with tariffs while demanding open access to ours. "Canada declined to finalize the trade deal under the terms agreed earlier this week." Fifty percent tariffs hit at midnight.

Carney's response was to call it a "miscalculation" – then announce dollar-for-dollar retaliation starting September 8.

He also told reporters Canada was "at war" with the United States. A country that has extracted sixty billion dollars a year from American workers just declared itself a victim.

That ends now.

Read about it...

Tough Love for Mexico President's graft

A few excerpts from Victor Davis Hanson's article

Victor Davis Hanson on Claudia Sheinbaum

Hello, this is Victor Davis Hanson for The Daily Signal. I’d like to talk about illegal immigration, but specifically about the new president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum.

She’s been very vocal about U.S. policy toward Mexico. For example, she said she would offer legal counsel to her citizens that were here illegally that were picked up, she thought, unfairly or too violently by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

She also said that the United States had no business taxing remittances—that is money that Mexican nationals here, for the most part illegally, send back to Mexico.

Many of these people sending back that money to Mexico are on local, state, federal entitlements for housing, for food, for education, for health care. In other words, we the taxpayers subsidize illegal aliens so that they can free up cash to send back to people in Mexico in dire poverty that can’t find redress of grievances from Sheinbaum’s own government.

She said, “Do not come into Mexican national ground if you’re going after the cartels.” That’s understandable, but the cartels are going into our ground.

So, what I’m getting at is she’s very, very intrusive in American politics. But here’s the problem: A recent Pew poll, taken just last year, showed a striking asymmetry. Whereas 61% of Mexican citizens have a favorable view of the United States, only 31% of Americans have a favorable view of Mexico.

Why is Mexico running a $171 billion trade surplus with the United States? Because China is avoiding tariffs by sending products to Mexico, which then Mexico assembles and exports with less duty into the United States.

Victor Davis Hanson offers his tough love solutions

August 1 New Tariffs may be implemented

North American Trade Faces New Threats

Trump’s hardball tactics and looming tariff threats could significantly shift the landscape of the U.S.-Canada trade.

At a Glance

Trump threatens a 35% tariff on Canadian goods by August 1.
Canada maintains a 25% counter-tariff amid tense negotiations.
U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum have doubled to 50%.
Trade talks are active but face potential escalation.

Trump’s Tariff Strategy and Its Implications:

The Trump administration has once again taken a firm stance on trade, with President Trump announcing a potential 35% tariff on Canadian goods if an agreement isn’t reached by August 1.

This aggressive move follows a series of tariffs targeting not only Canada but also Mexico, the EU, and others, with the intention of securing better trade terms for the U.S. The administration has already doubled tariffs on steel and aluminum imports to 50%.

With the U.S. market being a crucial destination for over three-quarters of Canadian exports, the stakes are high. The U.S. administration is leveraging its market size to extract concessions, aiming to protect domestic industries and reduce trade deficits. As of 2024, the U.S. had a trade deficit of approximately $63.3 billion with Canada, indicating that imports from Canada exceeded exports.

Read more...

Record for Tariff Receipts in April

Tariff receipts topped $16B in April, helped cut budget deficit

"Receipts from U.S. tariffs hit a record level in April as revenue from President Donald Trump’s trade war started kicking in.

Customs duties totaled $16.3 billion for the month, some 86% above the $8.75 billion collected during March and more than double the $7.1 billion a year ago, the Treasury Department reported Monday.

That brought the year-to-date total for the duties up to $63.3 billion and more than 18% ahead of the same period in 2024. Trump instituted 10% across-the-board tariffs on U.S. imports starting April 2, which came on top of other select duties he had leveled previously.

While the U.S. is still running a massive budget deficit, the influx in tariffs helped shave some of the imbalance for April, a month in which the Treasury generally runs a surplus because of the income tax filing deadline hitting mid-month."

[US Press Corp]

Free Trade destroyed American jobs says Glenn Beck

Glenn Beck on our Trade Policies

On a recent Wednesday Night Special, Glenn Beck took a good hard look at how elite-driven trade policies over the last 30 years have gutted America’s middle class.

In 2001, China joined the World Trade Organization. The move was presented as progress, but it ultimately caused nationwide devastation.

“The year China joined the WTO, the U.S. imported $102 billion in goods from China. In 10 years that number has more than tripled to $365 billion,” says Glenn.

Our trade deficit with China suffered tremendously as well.

“[It] tripled over the same period to $273 billion. Last year the deficit was $295 billion — by far our largest trade deficit with any nation,” Glenn adds.

Read more...

Auto Tariff Exemptions under consideration

Trump Considering Auto Tariff Exemptions, White House Confirms

The White House has confirmed that tariff exemptions for automakers are being considered, amid concerns over their economic impact.

President Donald Trump is considering potential tariff exemptions for automakers, a White House official confirmed to The Epoch Times on April 23, following weeks of intense lobbying by industry leaders warning of disruptions to supply chains and rising consumer costs.

Although the official did not provide specifics, the confirmation comes as automakers and suppliers voice growing concerns over the Trump administration’s 25 percent tariff on imported passenger vehicles and light trucks—effective April 3—and a similar 25 percent tariff on auto parts set to take effect by May 3.

The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents nearly all major automakers, has been a leading voice in the pushback. In an earlier public statement, Alliance President and CEO John Bozzella warned that the new tariffs would ripple across the U.S. economy.

Despite broad opposition from manufacturers, the tariffs have drawn support from the United Automobile Workers (UAW) labor union. UAW President Shawn Fain said in a March 9 interview with ABC News that unbalanced trade with countries like Canada and Mexico has led to the loss of roughly 90,000 manufacturing facilities in the United States over the past three decades.

Read more at The Epoch Times

Making America Wealthy Again

Trump’s Reciprocal Tariff Roll Out

"The president launched a new chapter in U.S. trade, imposing a 10 percent universal tariff on trading partners and higher reciprocal levies on some.

Just 72 days after taking office, President Donald Trump announced on April 2 sweeping trade policy changes, introducing what he called “reciprocal tariffs” for all countries and declaring it “Liberation Day in America.”

For decades, the United States has kept low trade barriers, promoting free trade agreements with minimal or zero tariffs—at least on its part. Those days are now over."

1. 10 Percent Universal Tariffs
2. Reciprocal Tariffs Target Countries With High Barriers
3. China Faces Steep Tariff Hike
4. Canada, Mexico Omitted From Reciprocal List
5. Trump Justifies New Tariffs
6. Role of Tariffs in Trump’s Economic Plan
7. Economic Indicators to Watch

Read the article for explanations and clarifications

Read the complete list

Our lust for cheap goods is endangering our national security.

Marco Rubio gets it. Our economic addiction to China is a national security threat

Rubio’s lecture argues that model is now threatened because of the decision to admit Communist China into the World Trade Organization in 2001. That choice allowed a nation committed to neither economic nor personal freedom to amass great wealth at the expense of the United States.

He notes that before China’s accession to the WTO, the United States “was the largest trading partner of 152 countries in the world.” Today, he says, China is the largest trading partner for 128 countries while we are the largest for only 57.

Read about it...

Where is the USMCA Trade Deal?

Canada and Mexico are waiting for the U.S. to get its act together and approve the USMCA

Democrats are the hold-up. They have one thing, and only one thing on their mind--Impeach the President. They know without impeachment they will go down to defeat in 2020.

Nancy Pelosi says this trade deal is the easiest one they have ever done but they're stalling. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and top Democratic negotiators have said they want to resolve concerns about the deal harming American workers or the environment before they ratify it. That's their excuse.

Through USMCA, Trump is “keeping his promise to replace the job-killing NAFTA, end the outsourcing of American jobs, and invest in the American worker,” said a White House spokesman.

Read more...

Any vote on USMCA this year would be defeated by the Democrats. They don't want the President to hav3e a "win" going into 2020.

US/China Trade Deal progressing

China signaled on Monday it was now seeking a “calm” end to its ongoing trade war with the U.S

Democrats have always wanted to do something about China

But now that the President is actually doing something about it, all they can do is bitch.

Economic “experts” have claimed tariffs would ruin our economy. They actually sided with China. Some predict a recession is about to occur, harming Trump’s booming economy. They didn’t count on what China just announced.

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Trump Meets with Xi Jinping

President Trump Pursues Smart China Strategy Heading Into Meeting With Xi Jinping

At President Trump’s planned meeting today with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 Summit in Japan, Trump is expected to continue to advance a strategy that his administration introduced in his first six months in office: viewing China as a strategic competitor to the United States and its allies.

Read more about it

Trump on Trade, Putin and the Federal Reserve

How the U.S. created a $500 billion trade deficit

U.S. Trade Deficit with Canada

Shepard Smith of Fox News (who drives me nuts--do you ever walk by your television set and shout at it saying "Shut the F up?"), just said on his show today that we have a trade surplus with Canada. He is always attacking Donald Trump in one way or another.

United States Census Bureau

Trump just keeps on winning

And when he's winning, Americans are winning--

From Zero Hedge

One month after the biggest plunge in the US trade deficit since the financial crisis – good news for Trump who has engaged in “trade war” with the rest of the world to boost US trader and exports.

The good news continued in April, when according to the Census Bureau, the US deficit shrank again, down 2.1% from a revised $47.2BN to $46.2BN – the lowest since September 2017, and beating not only the $49BN consensus estimate, but also also the lowest Wall Street estimate of $46.2BN.

Trump Tweet on China unfair trade

Rasmussen Poll on China trade

I had to post this latest Rasmussen poll on the main blog section rather than to the right as it shows how damn dumb 38% of the country really is--

Friday, April 06, 2018

Voters are closely divided over whether the United States and China are now in a trade war and whether America will emerge as the victor. But political affiliation once again colors the opinions.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 41% of Likely U.S. Voters think the United States’ tougher trade stance with China will be good for America in the long run. But nearly as many (38%) say it will be bad for this country. Only nine percent (9%) expect the tougher U.S. trade policy to have no impact, while 11% are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

As the president says,
"We are not in a trade war with China, that war was lost many years ago"

China has had a $500 billion trade deficit every year since 1993 with the United States. The western elites put China in power and gave them the one-sided trade deals to make communism work for the elite to leverage out the planet. China declared trade war on the United States but we're not going to be gang raped anymore, says Alex Jones.

Our economic surrender is over!

President Trump correct - Fair Reciprocity

Targeting China’s economic aggression

In the White House Diplomatic Reception Room yesterday, President Trump made it clear he’s taking a stand for American innovation. “We’ve lost, over a fairly short period of time, 60,000 factories in our country—closed, shuttered, gone. Six million jobs, at least, gone. And now they’re starting to come back,” the President said. “But we have one particular problem. And I view them as a friend . . . and that’s China.”

The President has directed his Administration to consider a range of actions to respond to China’s unfair and harmful acquisition of U.S. technology. Now, the Administration is proposing for public comment adding 25 percent additional tariffs on products that are supported by China’s unfair industrial policy.

“The word that I want to use is ‘reciprocal,’” President Trump said. “When they charge 25 percent for a car to go in, and we charge 2 percent for their car to come into the United States, that’s not good.”