There is no single simple solution to free trade/no free trade because every industry in every country is different, and agreements on trade that work are made between people and countries over time, and are constantly in flux. There are a few similarities in agreements between countries, but many differences. The 'smash and grab' Trump approach might work for a bully in the very short run, but he is treading on very thin ice, and it's spring; the ice is melting.
Trade flows are presently guided in large part by the power of the U.S. dollar, but what was once a cudgel to beat weaker countries is now subject to growing market competition in Europe and Asia. The Chinese GDP is approaching the American GDP, and the EU's has surpassed it. The IMF is not predicting the fall of the dollar, but is very concerned that the combination of trade uncertainty, world debt and the devaluing of the U.S. dollar could have catastrophic results. China has the largest reserves of dollars and gold, with 3.45 trillion, followed by Japan with 1.295 trillion. The U.S. is slightly behind Switzerland with a paltry 773 billion. China has almost 5 times the dollar reserves that the U.S. has, and Trump is focusing his trade war on them! That is the definition of lunacy!
Canada must tread water until this idiotic Trump trade war sorts itself out. We must deal with Trump as well as we can while increasing our trade flows with Asia and Europe. If we take advantage of this situation to develop our natural resources customer base while maintaining some semblance of rapport with our traditional friend to the south, we could come out the other side in a better place.
There is a potential tragedy brewing, and we can help smooth the troubled waters if we keep our heads down and avoid direct confrontation. We might have lucked out in our election and not only gotten a keen, educated mind, but also a smooth, talented manipulator!
Very good essay. Should be mandatory reading for all politicians and business developers. Could be a good blueprint for NB. Plenty to do with the uniqueness of the province.
I think fostering domestic software technology should be a key part of this.
US companies that control software updates essentially have full access to our computers. They have the capability through these updates to take control of all our tech infrastructure and all our personal computers. This is especially worrisome in the context of technology used in the defense sector.
This could be an opportunity to move to open source alternatives and other solutions commercially supported in the free world.
There's more benefits to this than security. One key benefit being getting access to leading edge technological knowledge.
More and more advanced knowledge comes in the form of code and data. With modern technologies, code is no longer just about controlling computers, it's about codifying human knowledge. Scientific knowledge of the problems and solutions in all domains including engineering, physics, biology, medicine, but also organisational procedures, finance, regulations, governance are being defined in software code.
Computer code is becoming the language of knowledge because it's the only way to write unambiguously. Natural language like English is often too imprecise and ambiguous to preserve and codify advanced knowledge (there's fundamental theories like Solomonoff Induction and Kolmogov Complexity that say refined knowledge is computer code).
Computer code is the DNA that runs our societies. With our computers running proprietary software, US companies are capturing the expertise for running our societies.
Germany has already implemented migration efforts away from proprietary US software, with migrations to Linux in Munich, since they are beneficial on their own even without a trade war.
On top of giving us access to the blueprints for our infrastructure, building this type of tech expertise can bootstrap the broader local tech sector, promote risk capital (startup funding etc.) to flow locally (and it can reduce the trade imbalances the US is complaining about since it's going to create domestic investment opportunities).
There is no single simple solution to free trade/no free trade because every industry in every country is different, and agreements on trade that work are made between people and countries over time, and are constantly in flux. There are a few similarities in agreements between countries, but many differences. The 'smash and grab' Trump approach might work for a bully in the very short run, but he is treading on very thin ice, and it's spring; the ice is melting.
Trade flows are presently guided in large part by the power of the U.S. dollar, but what was once a cudgel to beat weaker countries is now subject to growing market competition in Europe and Asia. The Chinese GDP is approaching the American GDP, and the EU's has surpassed it. The IMF is not predicting the fall of the dollar, but is very concerned that the combination of trade uncertainty, world debt and the devaluing of the U.S. dollar could have catastrophic results. China has the largest reserves of dollars and gold, with 3.45 trillion, followed by Japan with 1.295 trillion. The U.S. is slightly behind Switzerland with a paltry 773 billion. China has almost 5 times the dollar reserves that the U.S. has, and Trump is focusing his trade war on them! That is the definition of lunacy!
Canada must tread water until this idiotic Trump trade war sorts itself out. We must deal with Trump as well as we can while increasing our trade flows with Asia and Europe. If we take advantage of this situation to develop our natural resources customer base while maintaining some semblance of rapport with our traditional friend to the south, we could come out the other side in a better place.
There is a potential tragedy brewing, and we can help smooth the troubled waters if we keep our heads down and avoid direct confrontation. We might have lucked out in our election and not only gotten a keen, educated mind, but also a smooth, talented manipulator!
Very good essay. Should be mandatory reading for all politicians and business developers. Could be a good blueprint for NB. Plenty to do with the uniqueness of the province.
I think fostering domestic software technology should be a key part of this.
US companies that control software updates essentially have full access to our computers. They have the capability through these updates to take control of all our tech infrastructure and all our personal computers. This is especially worrisome in the context of technology used in the defense sector.
This could be an opportunity to move to open source alternatives and other solutions commercially supported in the free world.
There's more benefits to this than security. One key benefit being getting access to leading edge technological knowledge.
More and more advanced knowledge comes in the form of code and data. With modern technologies, code is no longer just about controlling computers, it's about codifying human knowledge. Scientific knowledge of the problems and solutions in all domains including engineering, physics, biology, medicine, but also organisational procedures, finance, regulations, governance are being defined in software code.
Computer code is becoming the language of knowledge because it's the only way to write unambiguously. Natural language like English is often too imprecise and ambiguous to preserve and codify advanced knowledge (there's fundamental theories like Solomonoff Induction and Kolmogov Complexity that say refined knowledge is computer code).
Computer code is the DNA that runs our societies. With our computers running proprietary software, US companies are capturing the expertise for running our societies.
Germany has already implemented migration efforts away from proprietary US software, with migrations to Linux in Munich, since they are beneficial on their own even without a trade war.
On top of giving us access to the blueprints for our infrastructure, building this type of tech expertise can bootstrap the broader local tech sector, promote risk capital (startup funding etc.) to flow locally (and it can reduce the trade imbalances the US is complaining about since it's going to create domestic investment opportunities).