US Tariffs

[jonny-chicken]

Is this really the only thread on the coming US Tariffs? Or did I miss out on a previous conversation? haahahaa...

On the eve of what could be a substantial first shot across the bow of this coming trade war, thought I would see what you guys are thinking/talking about out there...

It would seem to me that our industry may have the most to lose in this potential trade war because whatever goods are subject to tariffs in the end, we are most likely the ones shipping these goods at the present time.

I know at our company this has been a major topic of discussion for the past weeks and months... will they? won't they? how bad can it be? yadda yadda yadda...

We have very few runs that we do that don't involve crossing the border... If US companies stop or even slow down purchasing the products that we haul, where does that leave us and our employees?

What kinds of conversations are you guys having out there?

Anybody still think this isn't going to happen or won't be a big deal?

 

[Freight Broker]

As of 3:30 pm today, it's still happening. No news on exemptions, if any.

Short term this is going to hurt, but longer term we will achieve a "new normal" as the 25% is baked into the cost of doing business with the United States. It's a big deal, but we'll get through it.

Longer term, hopefully this serves as a wake up call for us to diversify our trade.. we've got all our eggs in one basket here. It's like a carrier or a broker having only one big customer.. when that customer isn't happy or leaves we've got a big problem. Business 101, and it applies to trade partners as well.

On the positive.. if Trump wants us to increase our defence spending to 2% or 5% of GDP.. well.. these tariffs may help us to achieve that by lowering our GDP, at least in the short term.

As for business, we might want to diversify away from the United States. Keep your heads up!.. we'll get through it, and the old maxim "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" applies.

 

[RayLaFleur]

Might be high time to begin brokering ocean freight lol

 

[FR8 4ME]

We were thinking that initially the south bound freight could drop, causing the northbound rates to go up. In the past we have seen the rates become skewed enough that trucks start to move empty to the US to get the inbound. This could leave a glut of trucks in the domestic market here and drive down those freight rates sharply. But hopefully we are just being chicken little about it and the sky isn't falling.

 

[Freight Broker]

Might be high time to begin brokering ocean freight lol

Or domestic Canada. Not a small market.. and if you're a small broker or carrier who doesn't need to boil the ocean to keep going... if 20 or 40 loads a week is all you really need, you might be able to meet that need without crossing an international border.

 

[thebluffs1]

Just watch Trumps comments from this afternoon, looks like they are definitely coming.

 

[senditover]

We've seen a large volume of freight being shipped down south as customers are trying to avoid the tariffs. At the end of the day, I feel like this is just a tactic to put a conservative government in Canada and force the liberals out.

 

[Rob]

We've seen a large volume of freight being shipped down south as customers are trying to avoid the tariffs. At the end of the day, I feel like this is just a tactic to put a conservative government in Canada and force the liberals out.

I am pretty sure the Liberals are on their way out because of the gong show the last 9.5 years have been but you cannot tell a Liberal that as they are never wrong.

 

[senditover]

I am pretty sure the Liberals are on their way out because of the gong show the last 9.5 years have been but you cannot tell a Liberal that as they are never wrong.

Yup, they're just delaying the inevitable.

 

[Freight Broker]

Yup, they're just delaying the inevitable.

Maybe not.. Mark Carney changes the dynamic. He's not a career politician, and he knows something about finance and economics. Not saying he's a shoe in, but he has made the Libs a viable option once again. If the NDP can support the Liberals until October with Mark Carney as the PM.. that might not be too bad.

 

[senditover]

Maybe not.. Mark Carney changes the dynamic. He's not a career politician, and he knows something about finance and economics. Not saying he's a shoe in, but he has made the Libs a viable option once again. If the NDP can support the Liberals until October with Mark Carney as the PM.. that might not be too bad.

Carney is their best option, if chosen. He's actually the most conservative of the bunch and was even praised by Harper for pulling us out of the 08 recession so smoothly. I mean his experience wasn't being a drama teacher so..

 

[BPOVFB]

Guy who worked the market vs a guy who didn't even have a high school job working at a market - I mean at least JT had a job? (not saying Carney is the liberal savior, but I dont think its quite the lock people think it is). Hope over Hate, we've had enough of the latter these days.

 

[LrgCar]

The past few days have been filled with panic for us, with customers scrambling to ship goods and so on. As others have pointed out, this might become a recurring reality, and we’ll have to wait and see how it unfolds. Several of our customers are based in the U.S. and will likely feel the impact, so we can only hope they push their local politicians to take action. These tariffs are harmful to everyone—both sides end up paying the price. Free trade is, without a doubt, the best trade.

 

[Freight Broker]

Guy who worked the market vs a guy who didn't even have a high school job working at a market - I mean at least JT had a job? (not saying Carney is the liberal savior, but I dont think its quite the lock people think it is). Hope over Hate, we've had enough of the later these days.

We need someone who understands finance and economics at the helm.. I don't care if he/she is Liberal, Conservative, Green or Purple.. We could do worse than a former head of the Bank of Canada as PM..

 

[Freight Broker]

The past few days have been filled with panic for us, with customers scrambling to ship goods and so on. As others have pointed out, this might become a recurring reality, and we’ll have to wait and see how it unfolds. Several of our customers are based in the U.S. and will likely feel the impact, so we can only hope they push their local politicians to take action. These tariffs are harmful to everyone—both sides end up paying the price. Free trade is, without a doubt, the best trade.

The worst of it is that it has generated a lot of needless animosity that didn't exist before. Trump's stance that "Canada has treated us very unfairly" isn't borne out in fact, and I would like to see some hard numbers that support that. Journalists should be asking those hard questions... unfair? how so? You don't need our oil, cars, and goods? Then why have you been buying them? Good investigative journalism appears to be dead... He needs to be called out on some of the BS he's spouting. Sadly we appear to have become supplicants to the United States... it's a little embarrassing frankly.

 

[LrgCar]

The worst of it is that it has generated a lot of needless animosity that didn't exist before. Trump's stance that "Canada has treated us very unfairly" isn't borne out in fact, and I would like to see some hard numbers that support that. Journalists should be asking those hard questions... unfair? how so? You don't need our oil, cars, and goods? Then why have you been buying them? Good investigative journalism appears to be dead... He needs to be called out on some of the BS he's spouting. Sadly we appear to have become supplicants to the United States... it's a little embarrassing frankly.

100% with you on this, nothing he is saying is based on fact, I looked up the fent numbers it was like 19kg seized at the border from Canada last year compared to 9600kg from Mexico.

 

[loaders]

Just like a little boy scaring the pidgeons at the park, Donald Trump is hell bent on causing chaos and uncertainty to the global order. His supporters, who lack the knowledge or ability to understand the implications of a trade war with your largest trading partners, will look upon these actions as simply America flexing its muscles, akin to building a new aircraft carrier or developing a new jet fighter. Moderate Republicans, like Colins from Maine, have been pushed to the sidelines and now the crazies are driving the bus. There will be some significant pain coming our way here in Canada, especially in the transportation industry.

 

[Freight Broker]

Nevertheless, we’re largely responsible for this state of affairs. CUSMA consists of three partners, with one of them being by far the largest dominating partner, and guess what..THEY’RE DOMINATING. We got too comfortable..our closet ally in both temperment and proximity availed us of a seemingly endless feast of low hanging fruit.. we partook..we got lazy.. and now our leaders run to Mar-a-lago at their behest like the supplicants we’ve become. Do we really need yet another wake up call? We have a wonderful country that remains the envy of the world even if we don’t see that most of the time. But we need to assert our sovereignty by diversifying ourselves away from single market vulnerability and by meeting our NATO obligations. We remain world leaders in several sectors.. avionics, automotive, natural resources are a just a few.. we need to leverage that to our advantage. In the meantime we need to stop looking for meaningful justification for the tariffs…the reality is that it’s not fentanyl..it’s not the border..it’s not about trade imbalances..it’s because they’re the dominant partner and BECAUSE THEY CAN.

 

[WALTERK]

"Just like a little boy scaring the pidgeons at the park, Donald Trump is hell bent on causing chaos and uncertainty to the global order.es His supporters, who lack the knowledge or ability to understand the implications of a trade war with your largest trading partners, will look upon these actions as simply America."

Just don't forget that that boy got a big stick! And, the US is your biggest trading partner, still. Canada being a pigeon should have found the way to secure its borders and get their immigration nightmare in order long time ago!
Didn't they just busted 875 kg of cocaine last week in Toronto. That's just the tip of an iceberg. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cocaine-seized-toronto-record-jalisco-cartel/
More on that here:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1867342017467924813

Here is some good read on your border:

https://homeland.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/2023-03-28-OIA-HRG-TestimonyALLPanelOne.pdf

"who lack the knowledge or ability to understand the implications of a trade war with your largest trading partners"
I would thread my words carefully here because you could find out that they just maybe understand the implications of a trade war better than you think, and again just maybe you should look in the mirror before you blame anybody for your own predicament.

 

[Freight Broker]

I doubt it's about the borders or fentanyl or trade imbalances.. or NATO spending. If it was then crippling tariffs would further hinder us in moving in the desired direction as there would be less funds available for these initiatives. If you want your partner to spend MORE on border security and NATO cutting them off at the knees economically via tariffs isn't going to accomplish that. Instead we're going to need to divert funds to help people and businesses with bailout packages and financial assistance in the wake of massive projected job losses and business failures. And it doesn't really matter what the reasons for the tariffs are anyway. The fact remains that we need to diversify our trade in the same way that a business must diversify its customer base. Of course, that will take time, and we're behind the eight ball on this already.

I hope we can maintain good relations with our American friends, and I believe we will. This is more of a big deal for us than it is for them given that our trade represents such a large part of our GDP verses theirs.