https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2018/06/11/why-trudeau-doesnt-have-the-high-ground-on-trade/?utm_term=.501b63fbca70
I've never heard of JJ McCullough before, and I'm strictly an amateur on trade policy, but I'm sure some of the Canadians know him. Is this piece a predictable output based on his past opinions and ideology, or is he presenting the facts fairly?
To answer your question, no he's not anyone of importance. He's a cartoonist who likes to chime in on politics. I don't think he's presenting facts fairly but instead he's presenting his opinion and ideology. Take this little tidbit:
The wisdom of the dairy tariffs is a source of debate and second-guessing in Canada, and we can’t take for granted that voters will stand foursquare behind Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as he insists that dairy protectionism is something he’s “100 percent” ready to defend.
Ok, so who will the voters stand behind then? The leaders of all three majour parties unequivocally support supply management.
Or this little bit:
To call this a minor triviality of Canadian life is to ignore one of the country’s highest-profile policy debates of the past half-decade. In 2012, centrist Liberal politician Martha Hall Findlay provoked the conversation by running for her party’s leadership on what was a mostly one-issue campaign to abolish dairy tariffs.
Nope, that wasn't even close to one of the country's higher profile debates. I guess maybe it would break the top 50 on a slow news day. Oh, also there are not hoards of Canadians crossing the boarder every day in a desperate hope to save $1.49 on dairy.
Now ignoring this fool let's take a closer look at the facts.
Canada has supply management. We restrict production of certain ag goods (dairly, eggs, poultry) which results in higher prices for Canadians. This is mostly a private matter. The US has massive farm subsidies. In fact the US subsidies for dairy are larger than the profits of the dairy sector. So the US is basically straight up dumping dairy.
So when Canada and the US got to talking NAFTA, Canada didn't much care for scrapping supply management and we sure weren't gonna let the US dump dairy. The US didn't really want to cut farm subsidies to dairies either. So we agreed to side pocket this bit. We get to keep supply management and the US gets to keep its subsidies. In order to prevent dumping, Canada will get to impose tariffs to prevent US dumping. It was all good because the trade relationship is so deep and broad that dairy is just a speck of dust on the windshield. This is how responsible adults do things. Also these provisions were codified into law.
Now for the boring bits. Every free trade agreement of the face of the planet contains a "national security" loop hole. You must keep in mind that free trade agreements are usually ratified by parliament (also in the case of the US). So they are actually laws in their countries. But the national security loophole generally allows the executive to go around them for the obvious reasons for national security. Now it was laughable when it was presented that Canadian steel and aluminium present a threat to the national security of the United States. But imposing steel and aluminium tariffs against Canada for Canadian dairy tariffs under national security is illegal. Unless of course we are egging the US's national security.
But of course none of this matters. Furthermore, The Donald of course doesn't give a hoot about dairies. He's just found a little loose piece of string he can pull at to create the discord that he relishes. He probably thinks that he can tweet Canada into submission. But Canada isn't Rosie O'Donell. Also Canada doesn't conduct foreign and economic policy via twitter.
