It's a Trade War with the U.S., But What Do We Do?
Let's look at what I've done since tariffs were announced and what alternatives in technology are out there. Who knows, maybe Trump calls all this off by Tuesday.
As you’ve probably heard, the U.S.A. has slapped a 25% tariff on Canadian imports (with a lower 10% for oil). The sweeping tariffs all but throw out an existing free trade agreement; the USMCA. That agreement was due to be renewed or expire in 2033. If you were thinking, “Hey, that’s illegal,” you’re probably right. Trump’s pretext for these tariffs were that Canada must stop the illegal importation of fentanyl into the U.S., which by most accounts is statistically insignificant. We Canadians have lost our own loved ones to this horrible opioid crisis too. “Why couldn't we solve that together?” will be the question asked by a tattered future person after so many more die because Trump decided to pick a fight with a friend.
In response to these levies, Trudeau will enact retaliatory tariffs, kicking off a trade or tariff war that might continue with more measures:
I thought he did well in this speech, and in jest, wrote this in an unexpectedly popular post on Twitter:
Given all this, we do need to unify. We need to take action. This is to say, don’t seek to boycott anything; there are still going to be products out of the U.S. we need to buy. But, over time, the hope will be that more homegrown companies will offer replacements here. Hopefully the Canadian economy can find new trade routes such as something direct to Mexico. If these attacks are a long-term plan for Trump, we have to support Canada every day.
Here are some of the things I’ve done since these tariffs started:
Cancelled my Amazon Prime membership
Began looking at labels at the grocery store, looking at where something comes from and if it is the U.S., I’ve been avoiding it
Looking at a thermometer and there were two products. The one I was interested in - Braun - was made in the U.S. and one was made in China. I bought the one from China.
Promised to make no plans to travel to the U.S. or stop-over there.
These are small measures, but we’re all going to have to collectively take these small actions against these punitive and illegal tariffs. None of it is perfect, of course, and many things are made in multiple places making it very difficult to tell what to avoid. Expect this to improve over time.
What about technology?
This will be a difficult road and often a personal choice. Consider the iPhone. Designed by Apple, a USA company, yet the phone is made primarily in China. The profits, of course, go to the US company. What do we do?
There are other, more clear alternatives:
When registering a domain, go to Namespro, never go to Godaddy or any other such US-based company. Some services exist in the E.U., such as ProtonMail (Swiss) - seek them out and support them
For web hosting, host it yourself or consider Web Hosting Canada, Stormweb, or Island Hosting
For email and documents, Microsoft and Google have a near monopoly on this. Perhaps one day a good alternatives will arise. Zoho out of India may be worth checking out
For e-commerce, consider Shopify
For payment gateways, tools like Stripe and Square are hard to beat, but look at Moneris first to see if they fit
For accounting, consider Freshbooks or Wave
For payroll, consider Payment Evolution
For social media aggregation, consider Hootsuite
Most computing devices are made in Asia, but consider the resale markets and support local businesses. Consider the company that designed them
Any online streaming service you pay for, consider cancelling them and find alternatives. This includes Amazon Prime, Netflix, Disney+
For services, always seek local companies
Yes, we have a ton of our own problems and have gone through so many rough years, but this is going to teach us some new lessons. We’ll have to learn learn them quickly and permanently. The time is not for anger, but a level-headed and smart approach that focuses on our Canadian ideals. The U.S. is the big-bad-wolf, but we don’t have to let them bully us. Because of what’s coming, there will be many new opportunities.
Thanks everyone for reading and sticking with me. Much more to come as just about everything evolves. If you know anyone who might be interested in this newsletter, please forward this to them.