r/politics • u/sweatycat New York • 3d ago

California to Negotiate Trade With Other Countries to Bypass Trump Tariffs

https://www.newsweek.com/california-newsom-trade-trump-tariffs-2055414
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u/THSSFC America 2d ago

A state trade deal would literally violate state-federal separation of powers which no foreign country would entertain as it would be detrimental to their own country politics of federal powers.

It doesn't have to. I mean, I don't know, the deal could be something like "Hey, China, if you don't reciprocate on almond exports, we'll fund UC research on panda reproduction" or some other item of interest to China. It's only a violation of federal powers if CA is attempting to levy or evade tariffs, or affect immigration or some other federal power.

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u/Safe-Cat-7289 2d ago

This is where that delusion comes into play, the notion that a single state has anything to offer against a broad economy wide economic attack.

Trumps tariffs are broad spectrum across every industry, why would a foreign country drop their retaliation to appease a subset when they are facing the behemoth? If anything it shows the retaliation is working and to keep it up

Mark carney from Canada has said retaliation won’t drop unless every action the Americans have took is dropped. It’s not a “we’ll carve this one section out because they’re being nice”

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u/THSSFC America 2d ago

Mark carney from Canada has said retaliation won’t drop unless every action the Americans have took is dropped.

Which is 100% defensible and IMO the right move

It’s not a “we’ll carve this one section out because they’re being nice”

But it already is a targeted tariffs plan, specifically targeted at industries in regions that support Trump.

This is exactly what CA is trying to foster.

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u/Safe-Cat-7289 2d ago

And I’m saying no country would entertain this and thus is complete posturing from newsom

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u/THSSFC America 2d ago

I mean, ok. But it's kind of already happening.

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u/Safe-Cat-7289 2d ago

State level trade deals with countries after retaliatory tariffs? Got any examples?

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u/THSSFC America 2d ago

https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/news/2025/03/canada-announces-robust-tariff-package-in-response-to-unjustified-us-tariffs.html

This is one-half of that equation. These are tariffs specifically constructed to be damaging to industries in regions of the US that support Trump. All Newsome is doing is trying to ensure other nations follow this example in their retaliation.

Will this sort of effort result in a signed "trade deal" or even anything formal at all? Maybe not. But it doesn't mean other nations wouldn't listen, since there are absolutely products consumers in their respective nations would want from CA at their current pre-tariff pricing.

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u/Safe-Cat-7289 2d ago

That’s only phase 1 of Canadas retaliatory response, Canadas has over a hundred billion in others ready to go

It’s in their strategy

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u/THSSFC America 2d ago

Have at it. May they have some domestic political impact here.

May we dine on poutine together in Valhalla.