This really is the dumbest trade war ever.
Enemy Mine
If Donald Trump makes good on his campaign promise to impose tariffs on Canadian energy imports — now pushed back a month, but still a looming threat — it stands to devastate the nuclear energy market.
As Reuters reports, the Canadian mining companies that supplied more than a quarter of the United States’ uranium needs in 2023 — which fuels our nuclear energy plants and, to a lesser extent, our scientific research and industrial manufacturing — are already feeling the brunt of Trump’s tariff threats.
Though the president included a “carve-out” for Canadian oil, uranium, coal, electricity, and natural gas, those important exports would still be taxed an additional 10 percent.
Look no further than the markets; stocks for Cameco, one of Canada’s largest uranium miners, slumped even further today after plunging 13 percent in the wake of DeepSeek’s insistence that the mineral won’t be that necessary for powering its AI centers.
While larger miners like Cameco would likely be able to weather this storm, experts are warning that smaller outfits would bear the brunt.
“The ripple effects will be severe, particularly for small and medium-sized manufacturers that lack the flexibility and capital to rapidly find alternative suppliers or absorb skyrocketing energy costs,” explained Jay Timmons, the CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers, in an interview with Reuters.
No War But Trade War
Trump and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum apparently reaching detente and agreeing on a one-month “pause” on those tariffs this morning, and Canada announced a similar deal this afternoon.
If that month elapses and uranium and other Canadian minerals begin being taxed an additional 10 percent, the US may begin seeking the important nuclear fuel elsewhere — and according to one in-the-know diplomat, Russia would be the biggest alternative.
“We supply [the US] about a third of the uranium that you use, but you still get uranium from Russia,” Canada’s ambassador to the US, Kirsten Hillman, told NPR last week. “So what we are saying is, ‘Why are you doing that? Why not create a nuclear fuel partnership with Canada to make the two of us nuclear independent nations?'”
“We can’t do that,” the ambassador continued, “if we’re in a big tariff fight.”
Could these tariffs even be devised to benefit Elon Musk and Trump’s buddy Vladimir Putin? There’s probably not quite that much 4-D chess going on with these idiotic tariffs and the will-they-won’t-they drama surrounding them — but that doesn’t mean they won’t benefit Russia down the line.
More on Trump and energy: Trump Admin Orders Deletion of Information About Climate Change From Government Websites
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