A trade deficit is not a subsidy. A tariff is, indeed, a tax. These were inconvenient facts for proponents of US tariffs that were on, then off, then back on. New uncertainly about Canada’s largest export market left Canadians uncertain about their own futures. It is clear the public must deal with new economic realities and, to deal those realities properly, they need access to economic research.
“Our faculty engage with these issues in their research all the time,” said Jordi Mondria, Professor of Economics, “we need mechanisms to share that research with the public when they need the information.”
The public event Mondria then created was called Shockwaves in Global Trade. Mondria assembled a panel of macroeconomists, an economic historian, specialists in international trade, and a political scientist who specializes in political economy to share their knowledge with an anxious public. On 29 April, the audience who gathered both in-person and online, had access to a discussion that developed from a rapid introduction to international trade agreements and economic development into an in-depth discussion of policy options for the newly elected federal government.
Hosted by the Department of Economics at the University of Toronto, faculty members Margarida Duarte, Peter Morrow, Joseph Steinberg, Shari Eli and Mark Manger discussed issues ranging from how international trade can mitigate geopolitical risk, to how the history of manufacturing in North America has dealt with tariffs in the past, to how the auto industry was shaped by past trade disputes.
A recording of the livestream is now available.
Return to the Department of Economics website.
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