The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday edition that on Tuesday President Donald Trump called the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement "irrelevant" ahead of Prime Minister Mark Carney's visit to China. A Canadian Press dispatch to The Globe reports that
Mr. Trump has unsettled Canada and Mexico ahead of this year's expected renegotiation of the continental trade pact. Canadian Minister Dominic LeBlanc will meet U.S. counterparts in mid-January to start formal USMCA talks.
The USMCA continues to shield most Canadian exports from the punitive tariffs Mr. Trump has introduced during his second presidency.
But he has imposed some tariffs that apply regardless of USMCA, including levies on the non-U.S. content in automobiles assembled in Canada and Mexico. He has repeatedly said the U.S. does not need Canadian-built vehicles at all. Major automakers, whose supply chains grew to encompass all three countries over the course of decades of continental free trade under the USMCA and its predecessor, the North American Free Trade Agreement, have called for the USMCA to be extended.
The uncertainty Mr. Trump's trade agenda has created for Canada's auto industry is likely to weigh on Mr. Carney as he arrives in China on Wednesday.
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