this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2025
83 points (97.7% liked)

World News

48479 readers
1690 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] BeNotAfraid@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago (8 children)

Why? Why is Canada engaging in a trade war started by the states, for their own selfish reasons? I swear Trump is just a Psy-op for a much broader plan.

[–] gonzo-rand19@moist.catsweat.com 16 points 2 days ago (5 children)

Chinese steel is cheaper than Canadian steel, even in Canada. Since Canadian steel is being targeted by tariffs in America, we need to make sure that as many Canadian companies as possible are using Canadian steel in order to make up for lost revenue on orders that were cancelled or were expected but are now economically impractical.

The practice is called protectionism and is an important tool when two countries have vastly different trade circumstances, such as when one can cheaply manufacture and ship products globally and another cannot. A good external example of this is the protectionism of Ghanaian oranges in order to stimulate the local industry.

[–] cyd@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

Chinese steel is cheaper than Canadian steel... Canadian steel is being targeted by tariffs in America, we need to make sure that as many Canadian companies as possible are using Canadian steel

This makes no logical sense. When Canadian steel are priced out of the US by tariffs, the supply available for domestic use goes up, which would normally cause the price to fall, already automatically reducing the price advantage of Chinese steel.

Basically, this is a convoluted way to keep steel prices high, to the detriment of Canadian manufacturers that use steel.

[–] wampus@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 day ago

Canada's economy has never been about using our resources, it's been about trying to find ways to sell resources to others, so that they can make products and sell those products back to us.

And us applying tariffs on China is almost entirely about US interests, not Canadian. Just look at EVs, and how we block Chinese EVs to protect US auto makers, under the guise of a "Canadian industry" that doesn't exist. Doug managed to screw the entire country out of cheap, high quality EVs by trotting out an "Arrow" vapourware car that was only ever intended to be used to prove to US/international auto makers that Canada can make the various components that go in to an EV -- ie. a fancy brochure / proof of concept to try and suck up to US car makers.

First of all, supply and demand is not a concept bound by natural law, like physics or something. It's a framework of understanding, not a hard and fast rule. For example, let's say I'm selling something. It costs me $5 to produce each one and I sell them for $8 each.

A foreign producer comes along and sells the exact same item for $5 each because it costs them $2 to make. Now the market is flooded with this product, but mine cannot be sold for $5 or less (since it would be sold for either no profit or at a loss), so there is direct financial incentive to buy the foreign product.

By adding a tariff, the price of the foreign product becomes higher, artificially driving demand of the domestic product, the price of which generally cannot be lowered without damaging local industry. You can see this in retail markets as well with stores like Walmart and Dollarama, who price other stores out of the market due to their unbeatable prices, which are the result of Chinese manufacturing infrastructure and subsidies.

There is much less flexibility in pricing in heavy industries like steel manufacturing compared to retail, so it doesn't really make sense for prices to fall significantly enough for Canadian companies to be able to compete with a manufacturing powerhouse like China.

[–] Jajcus@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 days ago

And how do the USA tariffs lower the costs of producing Canadian steel? If the costs are the same, but the prices drop, then the production becomes less profitable or even at loss. How this would help Canadian industry when the steel production is forced to stop? Other countries have already lost their production capabilities similar way, it is natural that Canada tries to be more careful.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)