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Comment by jacquesm | Hacker News Reader

Typical. If US can't compete on merits then they typically come up with some contrived reason to levy tariffs in order to cripple anything Canadian that just might be successful. Same thing happened to lumber, dairy, poultry, livestock and anything else that gets made north of the border. In the meantime all those industries are pretty happy to take the pork when and where it is available, Boeing probably more than any other company in the world. So this complaint is about as disingenuous as it gets.

Not that any other country cares one bit about Canada. Even the UK, which has a pretty big stake in this whole thing has kept mum, presumably because they don't want to upset their own future trade deal with the US.

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Actually, the UK did warn Boeing that it could lose UK defence contracts over the dispute - Bombardier is a huge employer in NI which is politically vital to the stability of the current UK government:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2017/sep/27/theres...

Indeed, the UK has been very vocal about this. It's been well covered in the Canadian press. The problem is the solution (more like a workaround) the UK offered does nothing to help Canadians and further restricts the marketplace to an even smaller group of companies.

Everyone is a loser in big corp politicking.

Give me a break, every country is hugely protectionist, Canada as much or more than most. I'm a Canadian consumer who is tired of paying inflated costs on dairy and other Quebec and Ontario products just because of tariffs imposed to buy votes in federal elections.

Despite NAFTA, we also pay huge duties on products shipped from the States; we have a $80 limit on imports while Americans can ship ten times that amount from Canada duty free; once again to protect mediocre Eastern retailers from real competition.

You are for the most part talking about consumer measures, the subject is a de-facto trade war in which the US holds pretty much all the cards.

That doesn't mean that your point isn't valid, but it is off-topic.

Anti-subsidy rules aren't exactly a totally contrived reason for tariffs. If the American company is working without subsidy, then it's hard to compete on even footing when the Canadian competitor is underwritten by the state. The correct forum for litigating this question is the WTO.

However, this analysis is complicated by Boeing's close relationship with the USG, particularly the military. I've seen the argument that the juicy contracts they get for military aircraft and weapons systems constitute an indirect subsidy for civilian aircraft. To be honest, I lack the expertise to evaluate this objection, so I simply note it for completeness' sake.

"The aerospace giant [Boeing] has received more state and local subsidy dollars than any other corporation in America"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2015/03/17/t...

Personally, I am skeptical of studies that count tax breaks as subsidies. If the company's BATNA is to go to a lower tax state, surely one cannot count the entire break as a subsidy, as opposed to a necessary cost to retain the company's presence. But, yes, in principle I agree that Boeing is subsidized to some degree or another.

That's why things like the EU are much more vital than most people realize for countries that aren't as big as the US, China etc.

Let's invite Canada to join the EU - they would be a great fit !

There is a bigger chance that Canada will invite the UK into NAFTA (assuming that will still exist by then).

I think there is more of a chance of Ireland joining Canada.

Canada has already made a free trade deal with the EU called CETA, all the more reason to play hard ball with the US during the new NAFTA negotiations.

https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://w...

Which — from my point of view as a Canadian consumer — is neutered by protectionism, as the one EU product I'd really want (decent affordable cheese) is excluded by the powerful Ontario/Québec dairy lobby.

I bet there are a lot of us that want cheap European cheese. It's basically the only thing I check in the news about trade deals these days! :)

Come and live here. There are some other fringe benefits beyond the cheese.

Lets not overlook Canada's own protectionist policies, with things like agriculture and dairy. See:

https://thewalrus.ca/youre-paying-too-much-for-milk/

http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada-hurting-itself-with-prote...

http://www.idfa.org/issues/canada-trade-policies

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