But no one's claiming they're "innocent," in the sense that they have never ever ever thrown a sharp elbow in international trade.

The Canadians have thrown elbows at the United States for many years, then complained about it. Living in a border state as I do here in Washington exposes one to a lot of what they say. They've done us dirty on a number of fronts.

This isn't a dichotomy, where there are only two possibilities: either the Canadians are entirely innocent bystanders or everything that the U.S. is doing is okay and all their responses are wrong.

Who claimed the US doesn't bear some of the blame? Nobody. The other end of that (that Canada bears zero responsibility) is 100% every post on this board for this matter and exactly what I'm talking about with respect to the "not even a millimeter" comment.

The prevailing narrative of this board is that everything is 100% Trump's fault and that "we" started all this. I suppose a burglar whom you knew was breaking into your tool shed every day and stealing stuff for years would get angry if you suddenly bought a really good lock -or- started housing a Pit Bull that has anger issues in the shed...but the burglar's brief to complain about it only goes so far. The burglar might even argue, Hey, man - it was only a few screws and washers- you never missed that stuff!

And maybe we didn't. Until we needed that screw or that washer.

Canada has long said rather loudly that they're wanting to make fair deals and are all in on free trade. Their tariff rate quota (TRQ) system and layers of rules, regulations and other items that lead to anti-competitive outcomes suggest otherwise.

farmprogress.com - The real story behind canada s dairy tariffs
“Almost immediately, we felt like Canada's administrative rules were not consistent with their obligations in the agreement,” says Rasdall Vargas. “Very quickly after that, the U.S. government engaged in consultations, which are discussions with the government of Canada, as precursor to a dispute.”

The discussions were at a standstill by early 2021, prompting the U.S. to launch a formal dispute aligned with the USMCA arbitration mechanism. The U.S. won, and Canada “immediately changed its rules in a manner that kind of made the problem worse,” Rasdall Vargas explains. “So, the U.S. government took another dispute.”

Again, to no avail. With tensions ratcheting up, the stakes are rising for dairy farmers on both sides of the border.

Years of this stuff, and this is just one example. American dairy farmers have a different view of Canadian trade practices than perhaps others do.

So, yes. The Canadians' practices aren't squeaky clean. Fortunately they have an audience in the United States that will take their protestations of innocence without question.