Recent employment data for tariff-exposed industries like motor vehicle and parts manufacturing demonstrates the importance of CUSMA to Canadian businesses. Motor vehicle and parts manufacturing experienced a significant decline in employment since January 2025, with employment declining nearly 6 percent from January 2025 to March 2026. While it may not be realistic for Canada-US trade […]
From: Daniel Schwanen To: CUSMA review watchers Date: May 25, 2026 Re: Here’s a Canadian Plan to get Deal out of the CUSMA Review Ordeal Reports that Washington wants a “down payment” from Canada just to begin talks on extending the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) provoked a wide Canadian consensus that we should refuse to pay for the “privilege” of sitting at the […]
Published in The Globe and Mail. A report that Washington wanted a “down payment” from Canada just to begin talks on extending the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) provoked a wide Canadian consensus that we should refuse to pay for the “privilege” of sitting at the table. That instinct is right. But refusal is not a […]
From: Lawrence Herman To: Trade observers Date: May 8, 2026 Re: A Trade Remedy Future Awaits Farmers When Supply Management Dies Asked about how he went bankrupt, a character in Ernest Hemingway’s novel The Sun Also Rises replies, “gradually, then suddenly.” That’s what’s in store for Canada’s supply management system, an outdated, regressive policy from the 1970s that protects the dairy and poultry sectors by artificially raising […]
From: Colin Busby and Nick Dahir To: Canadian fiscal observers Date: May 5, 2026 Re: The Tough Choices That Loom Over Our New 5-Percent Defence Target Having finally reached the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s 2-percent target of GDP defence spending – set in 2014 – Canada now faces a far steeper, and more critical climb. Raising that share to […]
From: Brian Livingston To: Chinese EV observers Date: April 30, 2026 Re: Administering that 6.1% Tariff for Chinese Electric Vehicle Imports The federal government’s decision to permit the importing of 49,000 electric vehicles (EVs) from China with a reduced tariff of 6.1 percent has raised questions as to how it will be administered. The MOU signed with China reduces the tariff to Canada’s current most favoured nation rate of 6.1 percent on the first 49,000 EVs imported. Any in excess of 49,000 will also be subject to the existing surtax of 100%, which was imposed by Canada in October […]
From: Glen Hodgson To: Trade watchers Date: April 20, 2026 Re: Can Canada accelerate its global trade diversification? The Trump tariffs and other threats have re-energized the federal government’s desire to diversify Canadian trade and investment. The 2025 federal budget committed to double exports of goods and services to non-US markets over the next decade, to a target of $600 billion in 2035 (in […]
Trump may waver on NATO, but Canada’s 5% commitment isn’t going anywhere – and it could cost $150 billion. The question is: how do we pay for it? Colin Busby and Nicholas Dahir lay out a path forward that avoids piling on debt. Read the report: https://cdhowe.org/publication/a-steep-climb-financing-canadas-nato-commitment-while-maintaining-fiscal-discipline/
Trump may waver on NATO, but Canada’s 5% commitment isn’t going anywhere – and it could cost $150 billion. The question is: how do we pay for it? Colin Busby and Nicholas Dahir lay out a path forward that avoids piling on debt. Read the report: https://cdhowe.org/publication/a-steep-climb-financing-canadas-nato-commitment-while-maintaining-fiscal-discipline/
The United States trade surpluses with Canada in autos, other finished manufactured goods such as machinery, and services such as tourism, all shrank in 2025, reflecting the costs to US industry of the sharp increase in trade barriers between the two highly integrated economies. The chart also illustrates that the United States registers a deficit […]
From: Christopher WorswickTo: Concerned CanadiansDate: March 3, 2026Re: Hold the Outrage and Just Buy the F-35s Canadian anger toward Donald Trump is understandable, but there is a real risk that this leads to poor policy choices. A case in point is the growing pressure to revisit the decision to buy a fleet of American F-35 fighter […]
Published in The Globe and Mail. Canadian anger toward U.S. President Donald Trump is understandable, but there is a real risk that this leads to poor policy choices. A case in point is the growing pressure to revisit the decision to buy a fleet of American F-35 fighter jets. In economics, we think that governments should set policy […]
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Recent employment data for tariff-exposed industries like motor vehicle and parts manufacturing demonstrates the importance of CUSMA to Canadian businesses. Motor vehicle and parts manufacturing experienced a significant decline in employment since January 2025, with employment declining nearly 6 percent from January 2025 to March 2026. While it may not be realistic for Canada-US trade […] 
From: Daniel Schwanen To: CUSMA review watchers Date: May 25, 2026 Re: Here’s a Canadian Plan to get Deal out of the CUSMA Review Ordeal Reports that Washington wants a “down payment” from Canada just to begin talks on extending the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) provoked a wide Canadian consensus that we should refuse to pay for the “privilege” of sitting at the […] 
Published in The Globe and Mail. A report that Washington wanted a “down payment” from Canada just to begin talks on extending the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) provoked a wide Canadian consensus that we should refuse to pay for the “privilege” of sitting at the table. That instinct is right. But refusal is not a […] 
From: Lawrence Herman To: Trade observers Date: May 8, 2026 Re: A Trade Remedy Future Awaits Farmers When Supply Management Dies Asked about how he went bankrupt, a character in Ernest Hemingway’s novel The Sun Also Rises replies, “gradually, then suddenly.” That’s what’s in store for Canada’s supply management system, an outdated, regressive policy from the 1970s that protects the dairy and poultry sectors by artificially raising […] 
From: Colin Busby and Nick Dahir To: Canadian fiscal observers Date: May 5, 2026 Re: The Tough Choices That Loom Over Our New 5-Percent Defence Target Having finally reached the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s 2-percent target of GDP defence spending – set in 2014 – Canada now faces a far steeper, and more critical climb. Raising that share to […] 
From: Brian Livingston To: Chinese EV observers Date: April 30, 2026 Re: Administering that 6.1% Tariff for Chinese Electric Vehicle Imports The federal government’s decision to permit the importing of 49,000 electric vehicles (EVs) from China with a reduced tariff of 6.1 percent has raised questions as to how it will be administered. The MOU signed with China reduces the tariff to Canada’s current most favoured nation rate of 6.1 percent on the first 49,000 EVs imported. Any in excess of 49,000 will also be subject to the existing surtax of 100%, which was imposed by Canada in October […] 
From: Glen Hodgson To: Trade watchers Date: April 20, 2026 Re: Can Canada accelerate its global trade diversification? The Trump tariffs and other threats have re-energized the federal government’s desire to diversify Canadian trade and investment. The 2025 federal budget committed to double exports of goods and services to non-US markets over the next decade, to a target of $600 billion in 2035 (in […] 
Trump may waver on NATO, but Canada’s 5% commitment isn’t going anywhere – and it could cost $150 billion. The question is: how do we pay for it? Colin Busby and Nicholas Dahir lay out a path forward that avoids piling on debt. Read the report: https://cdhowe.org/publication/a-steep-climb-financing-canadas-nato-commitment-while-maintaining-fiscal-discipline/ 
The United States trade surpluses with Canada in autos, other finished manufactured goods such as machinery, and services such as tourism, all shrank in 2025, reflecting the costs to US industry of the sharp increase in trade barriers between the two highly integrated economies. The chart also illustrates that the United States registers a deficit […] 
From: Christopher WorswickTo: Concerned CanadiansDate: March 3, 2026Re: Hold the Outrage and Just Buy the F-35s Canadian anger toward Donald Trump is understandable, but there is a real risk that this leads to poor policy choices. A case in point is the growing pressure to revisit the decision to buy a fleet of American F-35 fighter […]