Sunday, September 2, 2018

Canadian Divergence


The US trade deficit with Canada is small at $17.1 billion, but there are big differences in political philosophy between Trump’s agenda for the US and Canada’s doubling down on political correctness. There is no free speech in Canada. Citizens face fines and jail for criticizing gays or minorities. The Canadian government has a history of inviting the tyranny of the minorities and is prone to import more socialism to reduce freedom and individualism. The big question is when Canadian citizens start to push back on Canadian government abuse. French and English are the official languages and non-assimilation is the norm.

Canada is in a tough spot.  It looks like they took over the US auto industry and moved it to Canada and now Trump wants it back. Canadian debt is high and the US is set to compete with Canada for oil and natural gas customers.

Canada is currently our 2nd largest goods trading partner. Exports from Canada to the US totaled $299.3 billion. Imports from the US to Canada totaled $282.3 billion. The U.S. trade deficit with Canada was $17.1 billion in 2017.

Canada is the world's 5th largest exporter of petroleum oil and the United States is the top importer of Canadian petroleum oil. The United States imports $38.9 billion usd worth of oil per year and imports 98.05% of all of Canada's oil exports. Another big Canadian export commodity is Wheat.

Dairy is the second largest industry in Canada, just behind red meat.  Canada has 11.280 dairy farms and 1.4 million head of cattle. Dairy exports in 2017 totaled $400 million. Canadian dairy imports totaled $873 million. http://www.dairyinfo.gc.ca/index_e.php?s1=dff-fcil&s2=imp-exp&s3=exp

Canada charges a 300% tariff on Dairy imports from the US. Yet agriculture only accounts for 1.6% of GDP. Canada claims that their Dairy products are superior and they have invested heavily in developing the Dairy industry. The US produced 215.4 billion pounds of milk in 2017. Canada wants to increase milk production to 21.6 billion pounds. These billions of pounds of milk are used to make cheese, butter and milk.  Canadian milk costs $6 per gallon compared to $3.26 for US milk.

Canada doesn’t want to see their auto and auto parts manufacturing reduced. Canada makes the Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla, Dodge Grand Caravan, Toyota RAV4, Honda CRV, Chevy Equinox, Ford Edge, GMC Terrain, Chrysler Town & Country and Lexis RX. These models are the top sellers. Canada is a major car manufacturer and has other plants including Hyundai and Nissan and others.

US consumers buy 18 million cars per year. Canadian consumers buy 2 million cars per year. Canada makes 2.2 million cars per year. Trump wants US consumers to buy cars that are manufactured in the US by a US workforce.

Canada has a population of 37 million, a land area of 3.9 million square miles, but half of it is permafrost. GDP is $2 trillion, GDP growth is 3%. Per Capita GDP is $48,496 per year, GDP by sector is agriculture 1.6%, industry 27.7%, services 70.7%.

Labor force is 20 million, Unemployment is 5.8%, Inflation is 1.4%, Poverty is 12.9%.

Main industries include transportation equipment, chemicals, minerals, petroleum, natural gas, wood and paper, food products and fish products.

Exports are $390.1 billion of motor vehicles, auto parts, industrial machinery, aircraft, telecommunications equipment, chemicals, plastics, fertilizers, pulp, timber crude oil, natural gas, electricity and aluminum sold to the US 76.2%,  EU 7.7%,  China 4.1%, Japan 2.1%, Mexico 1.5%, other 8.4%.

Imports are $416.6 billion of machinery, equipment, motor vehicles, auto parts, crude oil, chemicals, electricity and durable consumer goods from the US 52.2%, China 12.1%, EU 11.4%, Mexico 6.2%, Japan 3%, other 15.1%.

Government Debt to GDP is 98.2%. Government revenue is $623.7 billion, government expense is $657.3 billion. External debt is $1.8 trillion. Foreign reserves are $83.1 billion. 33% of Canada’s GDP is consumed by government expense.


Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader

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