Negotiator wrote:For example tariffs on peanut butter for Europe archieve absolutely nothing. Europeans have no tradition of eating peanut butter in the first place. So we can easily live without, thank you very much.
It's symbolic. They are also demonstrating that they are willing to use tariffs.
Canada is planning on imposing tariffs on more than 100 US imports, including automotive manufacturing.
Negotiator wrote:Its a helpless and pointless guesture. You certainly dont protect the interests of your own population this way and you mostly just make the USA laugh about this absurdity.
You don't protect your interests by letting another country impose tariffs on your products, either. Were this Canada imposing tariffs(unprovoked, incidentally), I am sure you'd be crying foul.
USA has a very high demand of Canadian softwood lumber. By increasing the tariffs on that, Canada can demonstrate that imposing tariffs on Canadian imports is not beneficial to the USA. The whole point was to make trade fairer for the USA, but that won't be the result.
“Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson