Unrefined oil and natural gas make up the trade surplus of $200 billion. The US refines our oil and either sells it to US consumers or exports it. There is a further huge amount of minerals from Canada that the US has no incentive to stop importing. The respective industries in the US will persuade Trump not to impose tariffs on these particular goods.
We don’t export much dairy product to the US so Trump will put tariffs on other things, like steel products, to force Canada to accept more dairy products.
I just got off the phone with a client in the import/export business. He said they barely survived Trump last time, not sure he’s going to be a viable concern in four years.
The people at the bottom are also going to be paying a lot more for food when the food industries in the US lose cheap immigrant labour due to Trump’s border policy. Their labour costs will go up or they could be forced to cut back food production, requiring more expensive food imports.
The US has so many economic advantages. It is sad to see it squandering them.
