The Canadian govt led by Prime Minister Mark Carney has completely capitulated to the power and influence of President Trump.

While explaining how the United States has fundamentally changed the entire landscape of global trade, the leader of the Snow Mexicans announces he is dropping all countervailing and retaliatory tariffs against the USA and getting nothing in return.  Total and complete surrender by Canada; there is ZERO upside for Canada – NADA, Zippo, Zilch.

Prime Minister Mark Carney made the announcement, then faced the ire of the assembled media who were furious about the details within the statement.  The Canadian people had been promised an “elbows up” fight to the end. Instead, today they got down on their knees and begged Trump to retain the USMCA.

Complete and utter capitulation by Canada. No digital services taxes. No countervailing duty tariffs. No reciprocity tariffs on Steel and Aluminum. No retaliatory tariffs (reciprocal/baseline). Meanwhile, the USA keeps 50% tariffs on steel and aluminum against Canada, and Canada only gets 25% tariffs against U.S. steel/aluminum.

In addition, Canada has pledged to continue gaslighting their citizens, while wasting time, effort and resources on a hope to retain the USMCA, while refusing to admit to themselves that President Trump intends to dissolve it. WATCH:

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If that recap sounds bad for Canada, trust me – it’s way worse.  Really bad, horrible – terrible even.  So far beyond bad, the light from where horrible starts could not reach the Canadian terrible place for a year.  Not good.  😊

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Vice President JD Vance appears on Fox News with Maria Bartiromo to discuss current geopolitical events around the Ukraine-Russia conflict and the Israel-Gaza conflict.

In the second segment of the interview (11:00 point), Vice President Vance gives his opinion on the Russiagate documents. Vance notes that he supports indictments as the IC and Clinton campaign violated multiple laws. Vance then discusses the latest information about using tariffs as leverage for America-First policy.

Vance dodges the question about running for President with Marco Rubio in 2028 and notes the leaks about the administration officials meeting for a discussion on Epstein was ‘fake news’.  Then, in a remarkable moment, Vance begins to talk about Artificial Intelligence from the perspective of his worrying about “the surveillance state” and the “invasions of privacy” that come with AI. WATCH:

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The financial pundits are putting their customary spin on it, but overall as the reciprocal tariffs begin, things are going well.

China’s trade surplus with the US declined to USD 23.74 billion in July, down from USD 26.57 billion in June, as both exports and imports with the US declined, falling 21.7% and 18.9%, respectively. {LINK}

For Germany, exports to the U.S. slid 2.1% to 11.8 billion euros, the third consecutive monthly decrease and the lowest value since February 2022, Destatis said. They were 8.4% lower than the same month last year. {LINK} However, since imports from the U.S. increased at the same time, this narrowed Germany’s trade surplus in goods with the U.S.

Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter left Washington empty-handed on Wednesday after a hastily arranged trip to avert a crippling 39% tariff on the country’s exports to the United States, its biggest market, three sources familiar with the matter said. {LINK}

Reciprocal tariffs begin today. “Before Thursday, virtually every country’s goods were subject to a minimum 10% tariff. Now rates vary substantially from country to country.”

The highest rates imposed are on goods from Brazil (50%), Laos (40%), Myanmar (40%), Switzerland (39%), Iraq (35%) and Serbia (35%).

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U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer appears on Face the Nation with the ever-dramatic Margaret Brennan. Video and Transcript Below:

The part about Canada is very interesting.

[Transcript] – MARGARET BRENNAN: And we’re joined now by United States Trade Representative, Jamieson Greer. Ambassador, good to have you here.

JAMIESON GREER: Great to be here. Thank you.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So the President signed this executive order on Thursday, raises tariff rates on about 70 countries. Should we expect those to be negotiated down in the coming days?

JAMIESON GREER: I don’t, I don’t think they will be in the coming days. I think a lot of these, well I know a lot of these, are set rates pursuant to deals. Some of these deals are announced, some are not, others depend on the level of the trade deficit or surplus we may have with the country. So, so these, these tariff rates are pretty much set. I expect I do have my phone blowing up. There are trade ministers who, who want to talk more and see how they can work in a different way with the United States, but I think that we have, we’re seeing truly the contours of the President’s tariff plan right now with these rates.

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U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer hold a joint press conference in Stockholm after concluding the third-round of trade talks with Chinese officials.

The discussion and press availability covered U.S-China trade negotiations, economic cooperation and whether President Trump will meet Xi Jinping. Key moments include questions on tariffs, supply chains, and Beijing diplomacy. WATCH:

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Treasury Secretary Bessent notes as the U.S. economy continues strengthening, and as each trade deal with the U.K, Japan, ASEAN nations and Europe have cemented, the talks between the U.S. and China become more substantive.

With each global trade partner agreeing to terms of access to the USA market more pressure is naturally created on China to complete negotiations and affirm their position as supplier to the world’s largest market.

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The reality of the U.S-Canada economic relationship and the position of President Donald Trump is not that difficult to understand if you take all the disparate datapoints and quotes from Trump and put them into context.

During a White House meeting with Mark Carney, President Trump essentially told the Canadian Prime Minister why he was in no hurry to get to a deal with Canada.

The 35% tariffs on non-USMCA goods are going to trigger on August 1st, because the main priority of Trump -looking toward Canada- is to dissolve the USMCA.

During the May 6th oval office meeting with Carney, President Trump was discussing the USMCA and said:  “As you know it terminates fairly shortly. It gets renegotiated fairly shortly.” … “This was a transitional deal, and we’ll see what happens, we’re going to start renegotiating that” … “I don’t know if it serves a purpose anymore.”  …. “And the biggest purpose it served was, we got rid of NAFTA.”

To understand why President Trump wants to dissolve the USMCA {SEE HERE}.  To understand the technical value of dissolving the USMCA {SEE HERE}.  It’s not a complicated economic analysis; it’s common sense.

Currently, approximately 60% of the traded goods and services between the U.S. and Canada are covered by the USMCA; the remaining 40% will be hit by tariffs on August 1st at a 35% rate.

When the USMCA is renegotiated, predictably dissolved in favor of two bilateral trade agreements – one for Mexico and one for Canada, all of the U.S-Canada trade sectors will be part of the enlarged free trade negotiation.  As a result, there is absolutely no motive to engage in trade discussions now.

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Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick describes some of the details within the new U.S-European trade agreement.

As noted, the $600 billion in regular trade products exported by the EU to the USA market will be subject to a 15% reciprocal tariff.  This approach effectively ends the Marshall Plan, sets the trade terms to balance and should generate approximately $90 billion in revenue to the U.S. treasury.

U.S. tariffs on cars and auto parts are being reduced to the baseline 15 percent — a level that matches the deal notched earlier this month by Japanese automakers. In exchange, the EU has agreed to lower its car tariffs from 10 percent to zero, trade spokesperson Olof Gill said.  The German companies are angry though, because the 25% tariff still applies to Mexico. So, German autos manufactured in Mexico (massive prior investment) will come to the USA with a 25% tariff.

In addition to the EU agreement to open their markets to U.S. products, private companies within the EU have committed to $600 billion in direct investment within the USA.  Additionally, the EU will purchase $750 billion in U.S. energy products and with the NATO commitments previously agreed significant military purchases are anticipated. That is a major purchase agreement of $250 billion each year for the next three years.

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Congratulations America!

Thank You President Donald J Trump, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

Enjoy the golf.

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The Marshall Plan is OVER!

Okay, this is a very big win.  EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen outlines some more details of the U.S-EU trade agreement.  The parameters fall similar to the Japanese deal, without the banking aspect.

The EU will face (and accept) a 15% tariff rate for most exports to the USA including autos, that’s huge, even with some zero-for-zero tariff sectors outlined.  The primary motivating factor was to avoid the 35% tariff rate scheduled for August 1st and provide the EU corporations with certainty in their tariff rate as applied by the USA (15%).  WATCH:

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This is almost full acquiescence to President Trump.  WATCH THE VIDEO

Ursula has the sads.

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President Trump and EU Commissioner Ursula von der Leyen have apparently come to terms around the broad outlines of a U.S-EU trade agreement.

The EU will commit to purchasing $750 billion in energy products.  The EU will commit to investing $600+ billion in direct U.S. industries.  The EU will commit to purchasing their NATO military hardware from the USA ($500+ billion likely).  The EU will open up all markets to USA products without tariffs.  The EU and U.S. will both carry a 15% auto tariff for imports.  WATCH:

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I’m all about the broad outline described in the video above, but I also want to see the details.  If what President Trump said about all EU markets being open is accurate, it sounds like the Marshall Plan is over

Canada will not be happy; Europe gets a deal – Canada gets a cold shoulder.

Also, with U.K, Japan, ASEAN and EU trade agreements complete, President Trump is likely to begin focusing on the USMCA (Canada and Mexico) sooner than later.  Two bilateral trade agreements will likely replace the USMCA.

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