2018-09-08

Canada Has Only Itself To Blame On Trade Spat Mess

Canada is showing its insular and incredibly unrealistic nationalist colors as they try and rationalize away our mishandling of trade talks with our partners.

I suppose it's not surprising there was going to be some 'Mexico stabbed us in the back!' dramatics from some corners of the media as The Globe and Mail did. I can't comment on the article because you have to subscribe and I don't subscribe to legacy media. Judging from those titles, I don't expect to get much out of it as I've seen these sorts of spins in different forms over the years.

The simple fact is Mexico owes Canada nothing. Canadians don't seem to grasp that national interests are a real thing and the Americans are right to be asking for renovations of trade deal.

If you're not paying close attention to the wider context in which the Americans are operating (and it's on a higher level because they have far, far more of a dynamic and complex economic system with global implications and responsibilities at the same time) and just look at from the myopic lenses of Canadian interests, you're going to take a 'we can go out on our own!' posture; even though it's unrealistic and makes me wonder if people who say this understand anything at all about the way the Canadian economy functions in relation to the United States.

In other words, we see a lot of tough talk. Empty tough talk.

Hey, judging from the comments in the CBC, maybe this 'stick it to Trump' shtick just may keep Trudeau's incompetent government still in power in 2019. People just love to get all patriotic.

Trump is reshuffling the global trade system. Whether we like it or not is irrelevant. We don't move the needle in international affairs. The Americans do.

And the system is changing. Already has and it sounds like it blew right past our heads.

Whoosh!

The answer is to not to engage in empty nationalistic platitudes.

The proper response was to negotiate in good faith and not make frivolous demands on a U.S. government that's not interest in nickels and dimes like we are.

It doesn't sound like we're getting the message. We're still in the denial stage. Trump is 'out to get us' and 'Mexico stabbed us in the back!'

Whatever makes you sleep at night.

Aways someone else's fault, eh Canada?

Except in this case, we have no one but ourselves to blame for this predicament.

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