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Canada's Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, shown here at a Nov. 1, 2018 press conference, considers the steel and aluminum tariffs the Trump administration imposed against Canada illegal.
Comment/Columns, Free Market Reflections

USMCA frictions continue

Free Market Reflections with Steve Dittmer

By
After months of negotiation, it looked like maybe it would get easier. Yes, getting the USMCA through national legislatures would be difficult and the steel and aluminum tariffs and the retaliatory tariffs were still in place. But negotiations on steel and aluminum tariffs were ongoing and intense, we were told. Yet up until the night […] Read more
Comment/Columns, Free Market Reflections

Unfinished business

Free Market Reflections with Steve Dittmer

By
I had a discussion recently with a trade expert from the Canadian Consulate in Denver. The occasion was a celebration of the conclusion of the USMCA. Our discussion revolved around getting rid of the steel and aluminum tariffs the U.S. had put on Canadian and Mexican exports of those products. That is the key to […] Read more
Comment/Columns, Free Market Reflections

Resurrection of GIPSA Rule a bad idea

Free Market Reflections with Steve Dittmer

By
I’m sure you all are tired of bad ideas from south of the border. So I’m sad to report that one of our fringe groups down here has partially resurrected one of the most self-destructive ideas to ever come out of government, in collusion with attorneys and livestock industry malcontents. Those of you with memory […] Read more
Comment/Columns, Free Market Reflections

Eureka! At last, we have a renegotiated NAFTA

Free Market Reflections with Steve Dittmer

By
While it seems like forever to us, these kinds of diplomatic trade battles usually take several years to settle, not just a little over a year. Of course, President Trump wasn’t around before now, pushing people’s buttons and impatiently demanding results like a business tycoon. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a major point that the […] Read more
U.S. President Donald Trump at a Make America Great Again rally in Topeka, Kansas, on Oct. 6, 2018.
Comment/Columns, Free Market Reflections

Down to the bitter end

Free Market Reflections with Steve Dittmer

By
I’ve talked to a lot of cattlemen across America in the last year. To a man, or woman, they are not comfortable with some of President Trump’s brash New York style. Of course, one has to remember how his business career forged him. He has dealt with wealthy, egotistical national and international property owners; tough […] Read more
Comment/Columns, Free Market Reflections, Markets

Two economies, two theories

Free Market Reflections with Steve Dittmer

By
In May 1983’s G7 Summit, German Chancellor Helmut Kohl asked President Reagan to “Tell us about the American miracle.” Kohl was referring to America’s booming economy while the rest of the world was floundering. Reagan explained that cutting tax rates incentivized citizens and businesses, stimulated economic growth and eventually increased total tax return to the […] Read more
Free Market Reflections, Markets

A lackluster summer for NAFTA

Free Market Reflections with Steve Dittmer

By
You might well have seen President Trump in recent weeks all over the world (North Korea, G7 Summit in Quebec, NATO meetings and Helsinki, Finland with Vladimir Putin). You might not have seen him at campaign events in West Virginia, Michigan, Minnesota and elsewhere, if Canadian TV doesn’t carry those hugely successful events. The point […] Read more
Almost from day one, President Trump has threatened to pull out of NAFTA if he doesn’t get the deal he wants.
Free Market Reflections, Markets

NAFTA brinkmanship fails to meet deadlines

Free Market Reflections with Steve Dittmer

By
The politicians promised we would know whether or not we were going to have a new NAFTA agreement by early May. Frankly, President Trump had it in his hands. The most important issue (gauged by the time invested in it), auto assembly and auto parts, has been discussed for weeks now, long enough that negotiators must have […] Read more
Flags are pictured during the fifth round of NAFTA talks involving the United States, Mexico and Canada, in Mexico City, Mexico, November 19, 2017.
Free Market Reflections, Markets

Is fortune smiling on NAFTA?

Free Market Reflections with Steve Dittmer

By
If fortune is smiling on Canada this spring, you will be reading this column for clues as to how an agreement in principle was finally forged on renegotiating NAFTA. For months now we’ve been tracking the convergence of numerous factors that were pointing towards a do or die situation either this spring or in 2019. […] Read more
Early March saw the White House pronounce steel tariffs that would move many countries to request exemptions.
Free Market Reflections, Markets

An eventful week for trade

Free Market Reflections with Steve Dittmer

By
Canadians could be forgiven if they felt they dodged a bullet the first full week in March. Early in that week, President Trump announced blanket foreign steel tariffs of 25 per cent and 10 per cent on aluminum. Canada not only supplies half of the steel imported into the U.S. but half of American exports […] Read more

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