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"Carney said this more isolationist approach, where there's a "world of fortresses," will make countries poorer, fragile and less sustainable. But it's coming n

by davedx 9mo ago

"Carney said this more isolationist approach, where there's a "world of fortresses," will make countries poorer, fragile and less sustainable. But it's coming nonetheless and Canada must work with like-minded allies where possible to push back against domination by larger, wealthier and well-armed countries." New trade relationships are being forged surprisingly quickly in the midst of all this. Anyone have a list of what's been recently announced? I can think of Mercator, EU-India, Canada-??...

perihelions 9mo ago
(Mercosur*, for "Mercado Común del Sur"[0]; Mercator was a geographer from the 16th century[1]). [0] https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Glossary:Mercosur https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php... ("Glossary:Mercosur") [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerardus_Mercator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerardus_Mercator ("Gerardus Mercator")
deleted 9mo ago
[deleted]
inglor_cz 9mo ago
Mercosur took 20 years to finalize and if it wasn't for recent unhingedness of American politics, I would expect it to get vetoed by special farmer interests in the last minute. But the threat became too big for that. But yeah, there will be some urgency now. In times of need, people find out that all the "necessary" bureaucracy isn't really that necessary. War or threat of war is the only thing stronger than red tape. (For an analogy, when Russia invaded Ukraine, Germany put most of its regulations aside to build some infrastructure for import of liquified gas in mere 6 weeks or so. The same infrastructure, under peace conditions, would take some 10 years to litigate against every NIMBY and eco-organization out there.)
- SllX 9mo ago
  20 years and counting. The Mercosur deal still needs to pass the EU Parliament, and it’s not scheduled to come up for at least a few months. The EU’s Parliament is also nearly split down the middle on the deal which means there’s still about a 50/50 it fails, maybe 51/49 or 52/48 in its favor at the moment, but it is very close and still has about as much chance of passing as not passing at this juncture.
  - mk89 9mo ago
    Ooops: https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2026/01/21/european-parliament-freezes-mercosur-deal-referring-it-to-eu-court-of-justice https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2026/01/21/european-parli... :)
- joe_mamba 9mo ago
  >I would expect it to get vetoed by special farmer interests IDK man, I feel like supporting the local farming industry is a pretty important strategic move, even if it's a loss leader. We already offshored manufacturing, energy supply and IT to our "allies" in the past and it's biting us in the ass right now. Do we really want to repeat the same mistake again with food?
  - inglor_cz 9mo ago
    Everything is a trade-off. Farmers have a lot of influence in the EU. Personally, I think they are already too dominant, for historic reasons. And yes, I get that food is important. Maybe the answer would be to unburden them from European regulations, which are pretty onerous. The few people active in agriculture I know complain about insane paper wars with authorities all the time. One farmer I know got a hefty fine for building an impromptu shed for extra kids that were born beyond the expected count. Why are we doing this to ourselves, to 'secure our food'?
    - joe_mamba 9mo ago
      >for historic reasons Yes. The need to feed one's self and family is pretty historically important going back since we were primordial organisms to medieval times when if peasants didn't have food they'd riot and behead the king. >European regulations, which are pretty onerous. Onerous regulations that seek to prevent ... checks notes ... the use of slave labor and chemicals that damage human health and the environment. But sure, let's bypass all that and import food from countries that use slave labor and toxic pesticides while the EU virtue signals on Twatter how their mission is protecting humans from racism and exploitation and saving the environment, but apparently apart from those in countries where we import our food from, there they can do whatever exploitation they want as long as they give us cheap stuff. It's not hypocritical at all. Definitely not gonna bite us in the ass in 10+ years time when the leader of one of those countries with a shaky track record on democracy and human rights, decides to weaponize our food dependence on them to gain some advantages or just mow down some more the Amazon for profit while killing the indigenous, and all the EU is gonna do is write a sternly worded X post about "carefully monitoring the situation" at best, or at worst turn a blind eye and pretend a genocide isn't happening, just like they did with Azerbaijan's bombing of Nagorno-Karabakh because they were now dependent on Azerbaijani gas after giving up on Russian gas in 2022. Stupid EU regulations or not, giving up sovereignty on energy and food supply to third parties is bad idea all of the time, because it's guaranteed to be weaponized against you at some point. >One farmer I know got a hefty fine for building an impromptu shed for extra kids that were born beyond the expected count. Sounds like a local council, conty or national issue to me, not an EU issue.
- docdeek 9mo ago
  Special farmer interests are about 25% of the entire EU budget (https://www.europarl.europa.eu/topics/en/article/20211118STO17609/eu-agriculture-policy-in-numbers-infographics https://www.europarl.europa.eu/topics/en/article/20211118STO...). There are still farmer protests here in France every day against this deal. There will be a lot of pressure on French MEPs to vote against it when it goes to the EP for the final vote.
SideburnsOfDoom 9mo ago
> Canada-??.. Canada-China: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm24k6kk1rko https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm24k6kk1rko https://www.thecanadianpressnews.ca/business/canada-ev-deal-with-china-boosts-investment-potential-but-u-s-access-question-looms/article_1a31209e-c33f-5207-af2f-4c1615918446.html https://www.thecanadianpressnews.ca/business/canada-ev-deal-... https://www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/news-releases/2026/01/16/prime-minister-carney-forges-new-strategic-partnership-peoples https://www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/news-releases/2026/01/16/prime-...
rsynnott 9mo ago
It’s more acceleration of existing treaties. Negotiation of the EU<>Mercosur treaty started in 1999.

by davedx 9mo ago

perihelions 9mo ago

(Mercosur*, for "Mercado Común del Sur"[0]; Mercator was a geographer from the 16th century[1]). [0] https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Glossary:Mercosur https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php... ("Glossary:Mercosur") [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerardus_Mercator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerardus_Mercator ("Gerardus Mercator")

deleted 9mo ago

[deleted]

inglor_cz 9mo ago

Mercosur took 20 years to finalize and if it wasn't for recent unhingedness of American politics, I would expect it to get vetoed by special farmer interests in the last minute. But the threat became too big for that. But yeah, there will be some urgency now. In times of need, people find out that all the "necessary" bureaucracy isn't really that necessary. War or threat of war is the only thing stronger than red tape. (For an analogy, when Russia invaded Ukraine, Germany put most of its regulations aside to build some infrastructure for import of liquified gas in mere 6 weeks or so. The same infrastructure, under peace conditions, would take some 10 years to litigate against every NIMBY and eco-organization out there.)

SllX 9mo ago
20 years and counting. The Mercosur deal still needs to pass the EU Parliament, and it’s not scheduled to come up for at least a few months. The EU’s Parliament is also nearly split down the middle on the deal which means there’s still about a 50/50 it fails, maybe 51/49 or 52/48 in its favor at the moment, but it is very close and still has about as much chance of passing as not passing at this juncture.
- mk89 9mo ago
  Ooops: https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2026/01/21/european-parliament-freezes-mercosur-deal-referring-it-to-eu-court-of-justice https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2026/01/21/european-parli... :)
joe_mamba 9mo ago
>I would expect it to get vetoed by special farmer interests IDK man, I feel like supporting the local farming industry is a pretty important strategic move, even if it's a loss leader. We already offshored manufacturing, energy supply and IT to our "allies" in the past and it's biting us in the ass right now. Do we really want to repeat the same mistake again with food?
- inglor_cz 9mo ago
  Everything is a trade-off. Farmers have a lot of influence in the EU. Personally, I think they are already too dominant, for historic reasons. And yes, I get that food is important. Maybe the answer would be to unburden them from European regulations, which are pretty onerous. The few people active in agriculture I know complain about insane paper wars with authorities all the time. One farmer I know got a hefty fine for building an impromptu shed for extra kids that were born beyond the expected count. Why are we doing this to ourselves, to 'secure our food'?
  - joe_mamba 9mo ago
    >for historic reasons Yes. The need to feed one's self and family is pretty historically important going back since we were primordial organisms to medieval times when if peasants didn't have food they'd riot and behead the king. >European regulations, which are pretty onerous. Onerous regulations that seek to prevent ... checks notes ... the use of slave labor and chemicals that damage human health and the environment. But sure, let's bypass all that and import food from countries that use slave labor and toxic pesticides while the EU virtue signals on Twatter how their mission is protecting humans from racism and exploitation and saving the environment, but apparently apart from those in countries where we import our food from, there they can do whatever exploitation they want as long as they give us cheap stuff. It's not hypocritical at all. Definitely not gonna bite us in the ass in 10+ years time when the leader of one of those countries with a shaky track record on democracy and human rights, decides to weaponize our food dependence on them to gain some advantages or just mow down some more the Amazon for profit while killing the indigenous, and all the EU is gonna do is write a sternly worded X post about "carefully monitoring the situation" at best, or at worst turn a blind eye and pretend a genocide isn't happening, just like they did with Azerbaijan's bombing of Nagorno-Karabakh because they were now dependent on Azerbaijani gas after giving up on Russian gas in 2022. Stupid EU regulations or not, giving up sovereignty on energy and food supply to third parties is bad idea all of the time, because it's guaranteed to be weaponized against you at some point. >One farmer I know got a hefty fine for building an impromptu shed for extra kids that were born beyond the expected count. Sounds like a local council, conty or national issue to me, not an EU issue.
docdeek 9mo ago
Special farmer interests are about 25% of the entire EU budget (https://www.europarl.europa.eu/topics/en/article/20211118STO17609/eu-agriculture-policy-in-numbers-infographics https://www.europarl.europa.eu/topics/en/article/20211118STO...). There are still farmer protests here in France every day against this deal. There will be a lot of pressure on French MEPs to vote against it when it goes to the EP for the final vote.

SideburnsOfDoom 9mo ago

> Canada-??.. Canada-China: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm24k6kk1rko https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm24k6kk1rko https://www.thecanadianpressnews.ca/business/canada-ev-deal-with-china-boosts-investment-potential-but-u-s-access-question-looms/article_1a31209e-c33f-5207-af2f-4c1615918446.html https://www.thecanadianpressnews.ca/business/canada-ev-deal-... https://www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/news-releases/2026/01/16/prime-minister-carney-forges-new-strategic-partnership-peoples https://www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/news-releases/2026/01/16/prime-...

rsynnott 9mo ago

It’s more acceleration of existing treaties. Negotiation of the EU<>Mercosur treaty started in 1999.