TradeLane

While releasing his National Security Presidential Memorandum on Strengthening the Policy of the United States Toward Cuba, President Trump’s June 16^th remarks purported to scale back the historic rapprochement the Obama Administration had put in motion during the last two years of that presidency.

However, it may be too soon to tell if anything substantive will truly change in our dealings with the island nation.

A message from your Tradewin friends in Canada:

What is softwood lumber? It is lumber from coniferous trees such as pine, spruce, and Douglas fir.

The top six uses for Canadian softwood lumber are:

1. Decking
2. Flooring
3. Paneling
4. Framing
5. Furniture
6. Not hockey sticks

And now, it looks like it’s going to cost American importers as much as an extra 25% if they buy Canadian softwood lumber.

If you grew up as a suburban, middle-class kid in Canada like I did, you probably had some household chores that you were responsible for. One of mine was taking out the trash every week. I’d collect it up and get it ready to put out by the curb. I’d ask my Dad if there was anything else. He would suggest I roll my old car down to see if they would take it. Once it left the end of my driveway, I never gave it a second, thought. Our trash, not my car. 

Was it bad for the environment? Could it cause harm to someone else? Could it be used to make a bomb? Ok, maybe a little dramatic.

There seems to be a lot of chicken littles out there shouting that Trade is “falling”. The hyperbole and rhetoric during the campaign likely awoke and frightened the trade chicken littles.

Global Trade and the underlying “deals” are not single looped knots in a child’s shoe, which can be undone with a single pull of a loose end. They are more akin to a Gordian knot which are difficult to undo and when trying to unravel often lead to unintended consequences.

It seems hard to believe that it is November already and the holidays are just around the corner. I awoke this morning to the fresh news of Donald Trump’s somewhat surprising victory despite polls and “experts” leading us to believe the opposite.  I thought it would be a good place to start for my quarterly post.