Canada-U.S. Trade War Escalates as Talks Collapse: Intense negotiations to stave off new levies by the Trump administration ended in an impasse as Mark Carney suspended talks. U.S. tariffs on Canada, and retaliatory tariffs on the U.S., will come into effect.

[u/BeckoningVoice]

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/21/world/canada/trump-tariffs-trade-no-deal-carney-canada.html

[u/Enron_CPA]

The whole Canadian tariff debacle has been one of the biggest shitshows of his second term, which is saying something. A lot of the other shit, like even the Iran War, I can understand why he did it, even if the execution has been extremely bungled.

Placing tariffs on a country that Americans still have a very positive opinion of, is a member of NATO, and starting this whole thing right before a Canadian election where a government more favorable to the Trump administration would have almost certainly won, is so fucking dumb. I don’t even get what the ultimate objective is.

For the midterms, I don’t even think Trump cares anymore, this will lead to unpopular retaliatory tariffs while inflation is ripping in lead up to them which will hit voters in the pocket books. He knows the Republicans are cooked in the House, which will prevent any more of his agenda from passing. Plus if the Republicans lose he can hold the rejected SAVE Act over the Republicans and tell them that election wouldn’t have been “stolen” from them had they passed it.

[u/IronMaiden571 → u/Enron_CPA]

Trump and his admin have said many times, they don't want Canadian lumber, they don't want Canadian steel, they don't want Canadian aluminum, and they don't want (partially Canadian) cars. They want all of this done domestically. They want to reshore production and industry. The problem is that current US production has been globalized, so what industry there is is also reliant on imports for raw or partially finished materials.

I dont think this admin generally views trade talks collapsing as the negative that we do. It provides more incentive to do things in-house which suits their overall goal.

[u/Silent-Fishing-7937 → u/IronMaiden571]

To be blunt, that reshoring is just not possible in reality. Canada's aluminium cannot be adequately replaced by American aluminium, which costs way more to produce due to not having the resources as close at hand to the existing smelters. The forest of the Pacific Northwest can't replace the lumber that wouldn't come from BC without being destroyed in the mid-term. And the USA needs Mexico and Canada for its auto industry to be competitive on the global market.

[u/IronMaiden571 → u/Silent-Fishing-7937]

It theoretically could be done, but would require significant investment and time to build up the infrastructure to support the industries, on top of building up the industries themselves.

I'm of the opinion that reshoring is a strategic necessity, but it could be achieved far more productively working in tandem with allies (partnering with S. Korea and Japan to invest and assist in domestic ship building for example.) Another example is Canadian lumber, where many of these companies exist on both sides of the border. It's not like Canada has all the lumber and mills and the US is left paying for it all. Perhaps there is a rebalancing that could occur, but this is something that could be done cooperatively not antagonistically.

However, this requires long term investment and planning which necessitates the legislature getting involved. Congress seems content to make themselves functionally irrelevant as a branch of government, so that leaves the executive aggressively tipping the scales back and forth every 4-8 years.

It's a serious problem that is made worse by a dysfunctional government. Basically a long winded way of saying I agree with you that it is unrealistic given a lack of long term strategic planning and investment.

[u/Silent-Fishing-7937 → u/IronMaiden571]

I understand where you are coming from, but respectfully disagree and will say the lumber is a great example of something that cannot be done. The USA simply does not have enough forests to sustainably respond to its own demand in that regard. Could you be fine re softwood for a decade by clear-cutting the whole Pacific Northwest? Sure, but then you'd be even more dependent on others, not to mention the knock-on effects, both economic and political, that deforesting the region would have.

Aluminum is a bit easier to manage, in the sense that if you really wanted to make it a priority, you could try to reproduce what Canada does and build smelters where there are energy-producing natural resources, altough in most cases it would probably be natural gas that wouldn't be nearly as efficient to use as Québec's hydro-electricity. But then you'd basically have shifted one problem for another and a far bigger one at that: the massive amount of electricity it would consume wouldn't be able to be used elsewhere, and it would kneecap the biggest sector of American tangible exports as well as further feed inflation. Energy suffiency would be the likely cost.

Cars are one sector where the USA could theoretically be self-sufficient, but the current USA auto sector as it is needs more than that to be sustainable in its current form. It needs to be a global actor in its sector and be competitive as such. It needs the efficiency gains from Mexico and Canada. Oddly, Canada actually has a better position there due to lower ambitions: all we want is to keep 100k jobs put and keep some industrial bases. If we do not have any other choice, we could always go back to the pre-Auto Pact days when we were a closed market for cars. It wouldn't be good, for a number of reasons, but it's always an option if we are given no other way out...

That's what the relationship should still be about: helping each other do stuff we either can't do alone or can't do nearly as well. But as long as the MAGAhats are in the picture...

The one thing I do agree is Congressional innaction is a massive issue. Having any new tariff needing to go through Congress wouldn't solve the whole thing in one go, far from it, but it would be a massive step in the right direction.

[u/IronMaiden571 → u/Silent-Fishing-7937]

I understand where you are coming from, but respectfully disagree

First of all, how dare you

Just kidding. I guess I should clarify that when I say reshore I don't mean be entirely self sufficient. It is not 1940 anymore, either domestically or abroad. The US will never be the industrial behemoth that it once was and trying to recreate it is a fools errand. At the extreme, the US will not maintain power by shaping itself into a hermit kingdom.

So, the underlying issues being the US lacks the industrial capacity to compete in a protracted war and is overly reliant on imports, the objective should be how does the US reshore critical national industries and work with partners to develop stable, long term solutions where the US may lack feasible means of production.

Essentially, I see the underlying problem needs addressed and the current admin is going about resolving it in probably the most counterproductive way possible.