US Trade Crimes

I'll confess right up front... I'm miffed.

Hot on the heals of the Softwood lumber scandel the US is once again flying in the face of the trade rules that it foisted upon North America.

TORONTO (CP) - A U.S. Department of Agriculture plan to levy new fees on air travellers and commercial shipments from Canada is a nonsensical, self-serving measure that could clog the border and discourage air travel, the Canadian airline and trucking industries warned Friday.

"It's unnecessary and I think it has more to do with revenue generation than anything else," said Fred Gaspar, spokesman for the Air Transport Association of Canada.

Source: cnews.canoe.ca...

This is nothing more than a cashgrab/universal tariff capitalizing on the pop-terror culture. What happened to free trade? Why is the US the only NorthAmerican Country that should be alowed to end-run NAFTA? When are our southron cousins going to wake up and understand that constantly tweeking off their biggest trade partner is a very bad idea?

I am of the opinion that a stink needs to be made about this.

We are constantly taking the piss on Canada because it is illegal, immoral and racist to take the piss on those that truly deserve to be cut of at the nuts, mexico.

Your anti-US views are seen to me in your posts.

But you do not show the whole picture.

Hmmmm Canada has tariffs too.

Let's go back and see.

Canada in 1997

Please read if you are serious abouth this subject, and don't if you just want to bash.


If Canada is for total free trade, then explain away all of these points made in this article.

I've been on this board for over two years and I've never seen a Canadian write one good thing about the US. Canadians seem to think that Canada is the utopia that the US ought to be and that all things evil are the result of their neighbors to the south, so this news isn't exactly tugging at my heartstrings.

Oh, if someone wants to point out a post by a Canadian saying something good about the US, I'll issue a retraction.

[edit on 2006/9/3 by GradyPhilpott]

Not all of us here are America bashers, although there's a lot of it. I didn't take the time to look up a post, but here's a site for you to see Grady:

www.canadaka.net...

sbob, do you have anything more recent than 1998, I'm sure in 8 years some of those issues have been resolved. You might also get a chuckle that some of the issues in your link are a sore spot with many here too.

The liquor and beer taxes are on a province by province basis, and higher taxes are paid by all producers, whether American or Canadian based. Even the Canadian distillers had a bone to pick with those taxes, because of excessive smuggling through native reserves.

www.canadiandistillers.com...

The broadcasting act in force has not strayed far from it's original version, designed to protect the CBC from having to compete with other Canadian broadcasters, and is somewhat out of date by this time, but has not been changed. Oddly enough, the same people that put those laws in place to protect Canadian culture have now decided to make us officially multi-cultural.

One of the packaging requirements that American companies have problems with is almost certainly that we are a bi-lingual country, so all packaging must be in both English and French (also in metric measure). There are many here who regard official bilingualism as a costly failure, especially when in the name of protecting French language and culture, english signage is banned in Quebec. Here's a couple quotes from our current PM:

www.brainyquote.com...
www.brainyquote.com...

The last item on your list is the Canadian Wheat Board, that is a very sore spot for farmers out here, because it is not providing any kind of subsidy, but is preventing them from going to the open market to seek a better price than they are having forced upon them.

www.enterstageright.com...