President Donald Trump on Tuesday dismissed the United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement as unnecessary for the United States, arguing that Canada benefits most from the deal as he renewed his push for companies to move 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 comments come as U.S. automakers remain deeply tied to North American supply chains. The Detroit Three depend heavily on parts and manufacturing networks that stretch across Mexico and Canada, with all three producing hundreds of thousands of vehicles each year in both countries.
In November, major automakers including Tesla, Toyota and Ford urged the Trump administration to extend USMCA, warning that the agreement is central to American auto production. Those companies were joined by General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Volkswagen and Stellantis. The American Automotive Policy Council, which represents the Detroit Three, has argued that USMCA helps automakers operating in the United States compete globally by enabling regional integration, delivering efficiency gains, and producing tens of billions of dollars in annual savings.
General Motors President Mark Reuss underscored that complexity on Tuesday, describing the interconnected nature of production across the three countries. “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 remarks during a tour of a Ford factory in Dearborn, Michigan, ahead of an economic speech 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 has previously warned that if certain tariff structures are applied, U.S.-made vehicles—even those that comply with North American content rules—could lose ground to Asian imports, a shift the company said would hurt American auto workers.
USMCA is due for review this year, a process that will determine whether the pact is extended, revised, or allowed to expire. The agreement replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement in 2020 and includes a requirement that the three countries hold a joint review after six years.
