I first spotted this on Twitter, Canadian reporters reacting to Donald Trump making comments about shoes being smuggled into Canada. I jumped in and made a comment asking who told Trump our secret.
Soon I was to realize that people were losing their minds over this.
“The tariffs to get common items back into Canada are so high, that they have to smuggle them in.
“They buy shoes and then they wear them. They scuff them up. They make them sound old or look old,” Trump said.
You can watch his full comments in the clip below. What has amazed me is that people are arguing about this.
Average Canadians that live near the border are saying, “Yep, did that last time I bought shoes.”
Have any of these people shocked by Trump’s statement, puzzled by it, ever been to a factory outlet mall near the border of a Saturday? The parking lot garbage cans are filled with shoe boxes.
Trump says we are scuffing up the shoes to avoid tariffs. Now, I’ve never scuffed up the sides of shoes but I have worn them so the bottoms don’t look brand news. So have millions of other Canadians.
Yes Virginia, there are taxes and tariffs on shoes.
According to Canada Border Services Agency, a pair of shoes that you bought for $50 in the United States would cost you $6.50 in duty and taxes, the HST essentially, if the shoes were made in a NAFTA country. Since most shoes are made overseas, mainly Asia, the duty and taxes would be $17.80.
If you are buying shoes in the U.S. it is likely to save a few bucks. So you don’t want to be paying that tax or duty on a day trip and ya, this will happen. It happens every weekend.
Now some made the point that Trump didn’t realize the tariffs are on non-NAFTA shoes only and that is a fair point. Don’t complain about the high tariffs hurting your country when it is on shoes made in Vietnam or Bulgaria.
What is truly fascinating now is that people lose their minds and will argue and fight over anything and everything Trump says. Even a comment on shoes.
It’s also fascinating that so many of our media elites found this shoe story to be improbable. I think they lead a different life than the average Canuck.
Since wynne kicked tire sales out of Ontario with pick the Eco facist charges on tires for heavy trucks and agricultural tires. Where do you think trucking companies get there tires changed. And replaced. Now that would be a good one for doug to. Bring back if he took the ecofacost feed off largeness tires. It may help people not changing overnin Quebec Manitoba and Detroit or buffalo. It is an instant winner for doug as we can’t afford tires in Ontario anymore
Well actually then, why is Canada complaining about the tariffs on steel, when that steel is made in China???
Why won’t folks realize that Trump is a master negotiator and our guy is a tyro. All of this is simply to stir the pot to get what he wants; supply management gone to satisfy the Wisconsin farmers who put him in office and we get to keep the autopact. Come on Skippy, get with the program. You are a munchkin in the world of realpolitik. The shoe schtick is simply saying, ‘Hey skippy, your tariffs are hurting me because I can’t sell my shoes in your country so Canadians come to the US for cheaper shoes and are smugglers’. Your bad!
A number of years ago my wife had to pay tariffs on mail order boots from LL Bean. When she opened the box she discovered the boots were made in Quebec. She asked for a refund on the duty charges
And was told the duty applied because the boots were purchased from the US. It mattered not where they were made.
YOU DON`T WANT TO SCUFF YOUR NEW SHOES ,YOU WANT THE SHINE , SEEMS TO ME THAT PRESIDENT TRUMP HAS BEEN WORKING TO HARD AND NEEDS A REST ! MIGHT BE HIS AGE ‘ PEOPLE IN THEIR 40s CAN GET DEMENTIA !
ED PEEBLES
The Arrogant Worms wrote a whole song about it.
According to the American Mental Health Association, TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome) is the new leading cause of mental illness in the USA.
BUT BUT Trump must be wrong. He’s always wrong. ”Never mind that Trump’s obsession with the evil of trade deficits — including the one with Canada that doesn’t exist — is thoroughly wrongheaded. “ – Trump’s stupid trade war, and the unpleasant art of dealing with it / NP Joe Chidley.
Now those living in fly-over USA might think different.
There are globalists on the right and globalists on the left. The difference comes down to where some crumbs fall. Also some of the left see globalism as a means to further the socialist agenda on a global scale. Ms. Freeland, Canada’s chief trade negotiator, is of the left variety and her support base is of the left. How far is she willing to push globalism to achieve the objectives of the left?
Ms. Freeland paid lip service to Fly-over USA during her Washington speech on June 13. According to her, the solution to their plight was TAXES, i.e., wealth redistribution.
We know how taxes are anathema to the FP/NP, globalists of the right wing variety but the FP/NP is all for parroting the party line when it comes to Trump.
Now some of the public feel that actions meant to further whatever ideological bent, are not conducive to concluding a trade deal with the USA., E.g.;
-leaked phone conversations to MSM that misrepresented & distorted facts to further a BS narrative that Trump says Canada poses a physical treat to the USA
-a NY Times article published during the G7 summit that compares Trump to Hitler
-the back stabbing by the PM at the G7 after Trump made a major concession
-a Washington PR show with Trump adversaries and a speech inferring Trump is a tyrant
along with the endless virtue signaling and shaming, tools of the leftist playbook
Canadians are leery of getting dragged into a trade war to further Freeland’s ideological agenda and the PMs prospects for re-election. We were looking for sane voices in Canada’s MSM establishment to get the government to act half credibly and responsibly when dealing with Trump vs. poking him to further some ideological agenda. And so its disappointing that the FP would parrot the lines of Trudeau & Co., especially since the recent bogus and duplicitous deeds are now common knowledge.