Sep 04

Kronick, Ambler - Bank of Canada should keep cutting interest rates, whatever the U.S. Fed does

Published in The Globe and Mail. 

With CPI inflation slowing to 2.5 per cent in July, the rate cut announced by the Bank of Canada on Wednesday surprised no one.

Given the dovish tone of the bank’s announcement, it would be reasonable to expect at least one and possibly two more 25-basis point cuts before the end of this year (a basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point).

This cut widened the gap between the Bank of Canada’s overnight rate target and the top of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s band for its equivalent, the federal funds rate, from 50 basis points at the end of May to 1.25 per cent.

Should this gap worry the Bank of Canada – perhaps lead it not to cut the overnight rate again even if it…

Aug 27

Lawrence Herman - Here’s how Canada can square tariffs on Chinese EVs with the WTO

Published in The Globe and Mail

The Trudeau government has announced 100-per-cent tariff surcharges on Chinese electric vehicles starting Oct. 1. In doing this Canada will be marching in step with the United States, Mexico and the European Union. As well as hitting EVs, Canada will be applying 25-per-cent import surcharges on Chinese aluminum and steel also following what the Americans have done.

The tool used to impose these surcharges is an almost-never-used provision in Canadian law – section 53 of the Customs Tariff Act. That provision gives the government broad powers to apply these kinds of import surcharges on the joint recommendation of the ministers of Finance and International Trade. While that recommendation must…

Aug 26

Daniel Schwanen - Ordering the rail workers back was the right thing to do

Published in The Globe and Mail

Millions of Canadians and hundreds of thousands of businesses were relieved to hear that on Saturday, the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) had ordered the country’s two major national railways, Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Kansas City, to resume services, and for their workers to return to their jobs. At the same time, it sent their contract disputes to binding arbitration.

This decision, taken at the behest of Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon, came after lockouts by the two companies last week, and strikes called by members of the Teamsters union.

The CIRB had ruled earlier this month that the rail transport of commodities is not an essential service – not resulting in…