Trump Says USMCA Irrelevant for US, as Automakers Urge Extension

President Donald Trump on Tuesday said the United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement is not relevant for the U.S. but Canada wants it, as he pushed for companies to bring manufacturing back to American soil.

“There’s no real advantage to it, it’s irrelevant,” Trump said. “Canada would love it. Canada wants it. They need it.”

The Detroit Three are heavily reliant on supply chains that include significant parts production in Mexico and Canada and all three produce hundreds of thousands of vehicles annually in both countries.

Major automakers including Tesla, Toyota and Ford in November urged the Trump administration to extend USMCA, saying it is crucial to American auto production. The automakers, which also included General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Volkswagen and Stellantis. The American Automotive Policy Council, representing the Detroit Three automakers, said USMCA “enables automakers operating in the U.S. to compete globally through regional integration, which delivers efficiency gains” and accounts “for tens of billions of dollars in annual savings.”

Mark Reuss, president of General Motors, said at an event Tuesday: “Our supply chains go all the way through all three countries. It’s not simple. It’s very complex,” he said. “The whole North American piece of that is a big strength.”

Trump made the comments as he toured a Ford factory in Dearborn, Michigan, ahead of a speech on the economy he is delivering in Detroit.

“The problem is we don’t need their product. You know, we don’t need cars made in Canada. We don’t need cars made in Mexico. We want to take them here. And that’s what’s happening,” he said.

Stellantis said in November that under 15% tariffs with Japan, U.S. vehicles complying with North American content rules “will continue to lose market share to Asian imports, to the detriment of American automotive workers.”

The USMCA is up for review this year to decide whether it will be left to expire or another deal will be worked out.

The trade pact, which replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement in 2020 and was negotiated during Trump’s first term as president, requires the three countries to hold a joint review after six years.

(Reporting by Erickson, Shepardson, Hall and Jackson; Editing by Caitlin Webber and Chizu Nomiyama )