Attempting To Reach An Agreement With Someone Who Has Broken Previous Agreements Multiple Times Seems Irrational. The Only Other Option Is To Not Sign An Agreement With The United States and For Canada to Sell All of It’s Commodities and Resources to Other Countries That Keep Their Word
This is not simply a rhetorical question, although dealing with the current administration in the United States makes it feels like one.
Are trade agreements with the U.S. simply of no value? Is a relationship with the United States always to be a simple transaction whereby agreement is only reached on the basis of zero-sum?
The U.S. is demanding that Canada meet the demands of the United States, yet there is no mechanism that assures Canada that America will ever comply?
Without legal consequences, without adherence to International Trade Law or some means of inflicting financial loss on the party that fails to meet the terms of a contract, what conceivable resolution is there?
Most countries, most administrations actually care about ‘reputational loss’, however, in relation to the U.S. there is no reputation to put at risk.
Don’t Americans give a shit?
Apparently not, for no one seems particularly exorcised by Trump’s thievery.
America has withdrawn from most International Trade Agreements and has broken International Trade Law with impunity.
It would seem that the only response that will have long-lasting effect and implications on the U.S. is for nations like Canada to no longer sell its products to the United States.
A Truth Levy
Maybe the only action that makes sense is for Canada to impose a ‘truth levy’ on the United States, whereby if the U.S. fails to adhere to a given contractual agreement, that the cost of the item in question then increases by a substantive amount in the future, with payment required before the shipment of the product in question.
I’m not sure that there is any other response that makes sense if the U.S. with impunity ignores the agreement.
Of course, Canada can stop shipments to the U.S., which may well be the only truly logical response.
Tear up an agreement, and electrical supply gets shut off. Ignore International Law, and find that Canada is in return selling its 4.1 million barrels of oil to Japan, or China each day.
No agreement, and the price of potash rises 100%.
Sounds fair to me.
Would you do business with a company you knew you couldn’t trust?
Why?
When you have what other countries want, why would you ever return to the customer who stiffed you, or worse, threatened you with force?
It’s time to face facts.
America is just another customer that cannot be trusted.
Cash before shipment.
That’s the solution.
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