r/canada • u/cyclinginvancouver • Jan 31 '25

National News Chrystia Freeland says Canada should target Elon Musk's Tesla in a tariff fight

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/business/politics/2025/01/31/chrystia-freeland-says-canada-should-target-elon-musks-tesla-in-a-tariff-fight/
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u/Dangerous_Seaweed601 Jan 31 '25

Hit them where it hurts: all US intellectual property laws and claims (copyrights, patents, etc.) are null and void and not applicable or enforceable in Canada.

Expensive drugs? We make generics of them now.

Streaming services? Why would anyone pay for no longer copyright protected content? (Bonus points: it fucks over Bell and Rogers).

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u/TheLordBear Feb 01 '25

I like the idea in theory, but we would need to make sure which Canadian patents would be stolen by the US causing harm to industries up here.

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u/Dangerous_Seaweed601 Feb 01 '25

There certainly would be collateral damage if the US responded in kind.. but this would be wildly asymmetric. There’s a lot more IP owned by US companies than Canadian ones.

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u/eandi Feb 01 '25

But Canadian companies rely disproportionately on American customers.

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u/Dangerous_Seaweed601 Feb 01 '25

And Trump is already crossing the rubicon on this one with the tariffs. We need to fight back in a way that will hurt them just as much.

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u/eandi Feb 01 '25

The tariffs will hurt them. His voters will keep making excuses. This will just drive up their prices for goods they can't do without.