There will be a slight delay
Wait a second I forgot my shoes. Hang on, I have to eat lunch first. Sorry, I’ll be right with you, as soon as I find my wallet. Sit down for a minute, enjoy yourself, I have to do my taxes before we go.
US President Donald Trump has said Mexico will not be required to pay tariffs on goods that come under the trade pact between the two countries and Canada until 2 April.
Trump has not confirmed if the suspension also applies to Canada, but its northern neighbour is expecting an exemption of the “same nature”, a Canadian government source told the BBC.
The latest move is the second climbdown in two days from Trump on his tariffs.
Hey hey hey it’s not a climbdown, it’s just a slight delay while he figures out which is his right hand.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford told CNN that the province would go ahead with a 25% tariff on the electricity it provides to 1.5 million homes and businesses in New York, Michigan and Minnesota from Monday.
What??? No fair! Trump paused so you have to pause! That’s the rule!
I can’t begin to tell you how annoyed I am that this debacle is making me side with Doug fucking Ford. He’s no better than his late brother Rob Ford, the notorious crack-smoking former mayor of Toronto. They’re a family of racist, homophobic blue-collar petty criminals. I say blue collar because they come from Toronto’s lower-income industrial borough, but they were actually very wealthy off the family business making supermarket packaging labels. But it’s the blue-collar image they uphold that appeals to the voters. And ironically, Doug’s blue-collar tough-guy schtick is actually perfect to stand up to Trump, another rich guy posing as an everyman. Set a thief to catch a thief. Or as Italians say, “Un diavolo scaccia l’altro” — it takes a devil to drive out another.
Maybe someone should ask the question: ,”Why are you pausing these at all? Do you expect to gain something in the interim? If you’re gaining something why reimpose them?”
This is something Trump would call an “attack” on the United States; with a sudden cold snap, with a few people freezing to death because they couldn’t afford “Canadian” electricity (whether any such deaths were connected or not) and Trump has a pretext for more drastic action. Like Ukraine, we would have “started” it.
JFC Arty, I didn’t realise there were two of them. I was wondering how Ford had managed to hang on this long. I think I need to pay greater attention to all things Canadian and learn of to get my elbows up.
I’ve seen it said that this back and forth is all about manipulating the stock market so that Trump and accomplices can buy at sell at profitable moments as the latest news (i.e. contradictory Trump announcements) sends things either up or down.