So this is just going to be ongoing drama the beginning of every month indefinitely? I’m not even sure what we are trying to extract from Canada at this point.

Are you not entertained?

I’m not even sure what we are trying to extract from Canada at this point.

Their energy, their focus, their attention. Your attention. All the time people spend in stress / outrage / fear / whatever in reaction to these events, that's time and energy not available to look at the news that get less coverage (which are usually the more important).

It also sucks all the air out of other internal political discussion - US trade relations take #1 priority and so everything else either gets forgotten or put on hold.

Easy way to set your opponents back when you have the upper hand like the US does.

“How can I decouple from the US as fast as possible?” is what this leads to.

Diplomacy is the art of saying “good dog” until you make it to the rock. The US will apply pressure for short term gain against allies while they move away long term.

It seems like they keep trying it and hoping the markets respond better.

But watching today, it seems like the markets aren't getting tricked anymore.

"Even in announcing this supposed pause, a White House official told some American news outlets on a background briefing that the tariff reprieve would only apply to Canadian exports that are compliant with the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) — and not goods that are sold into the U.S. outside of that trade deal.

The Associated Press reported that roughly 62 per cent of imports from Canada would likely still face the 25 per cent tariffs because they're not "USMCA compliant," according to a White House official who insisted on anonymity to preview the orders on a call with reporters."

Majority of goods still affected by tariffs. Any suggestion that tariffs are being paused is a complete lie.

Do you say "lie" because you believe the media is actively lying, or do you really mean error by omission (due to lack of deep research)?

The actual title in the linked media is: "Trump pausing tariffs on some Canadian goods until April 2". So, media did not lied nor committed error by omission. To be fair, OP did not mentioned or accused media.

The hacker news title is "Trump says he is pausing tariffs on Canadian ...". So, either Trump lies or the HN title lies.

I'm just trying to understand the intent behind this: "Any suggestion that tariffs are being paused is a complete lie." I read that as blaming the media for not explaining that this is partial?