By Ginika Igboke
U.S. President Donald Trump again dismissed the importance of trade with Canada this week, comments that drew attention because they came as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney prepared to land in China on a high-profile visit.
Carney’s government has been seeking to expand trade ties with Asia and other regions amid ongoing trade friction with Washington. Ottawa’s renewed outreach to Beijing is framed as an economic necessity driven by U.S. policy pressures, despite long-standing concerns about China’s domestic repression and assertive foreign posture.
Beijing, for its part, is aware that Canada is seeking alternatives after years of strained relations stemming from security disputes and geopolitical tensions.
Trump made his remarks on Jan. 13 while touring a Ford Motor Company plant in Michigan. After crediting tariffs with boosting U.S. auto manufacturing, he was asked about the upcoming review of the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA).
“I don’t even think about USMCA,” Trump said. While adding that he wants Canada and Mexico to “do well,” he argued the United States does not “need their product.”
Trump reiterated a familiar theme, saying the U.S. does not need vehicles or raw materials produced in Canada or Mexico.
“We don’t need cars made in Canada. We don’t need cars made in Mexico,” he said. “We want to make them here, and that’s what’s happening. Everybody’s moving here—from Canada, from Mexico, from Japan, from Germany, from all over the world.”
Asked whether he intended to renegotiate the USMCA, Trump said the agreement could be renewed or scrapped without consequence.
“It expires very shortly, and we could have it or not. It wouldn’t matter,” he said. “I think they want it. I don’t really care. No real advantage. It’s irrelevant to me.”
Similar remarks were made in December 2025 by U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, who said the agreement could be exited, revised, or renegotiated. In response, Carney and Canada–U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc said the Trump administration had not formally indicated a desire to abandon the pact.
Timing and China Visit
While Trump’s message was not new, its timing was notable as Canada seeks closer engagement with China, the United States’ top strategic rival. The Trump administration’s recently released National Security Strategy emphasizes countering China and limiting its influence in the Western Hemisphere.
Upon arriving in China, Carney said bilateral ties have “created opportunities and prosperity on both sides of the Pacific.”
“We’re ready to build a new partnership—one that builds on the best of our past and responds to the challenges of today,” Carney wrote in a Jan. 14 social media post.
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand echoed that sentiment, calling the trip the first visit to China by a Canadian prime minister since 2017.
The Canadian delegation plans to discuss trade and “other opportunities for collaboration,” Anand said, citing strong people-to-people ties between the two countries. She declined to say whether Ottawa still considers China a “disruptive” global power, as described in Canada’s 2022 Indo-Pacific Strategy.
“This is a new government with a new prime minister, a new foreign policy in a new geopolitical environment,” Anand said. “In this moment of economic stress, it is necessary for us to diversify our trading partners and grow non-U.S. trade by at least 50 percent over the next 10 years.”
Beijing Issues Warning
Ahead of Carney’s arrival, the Chinese Communist Party signaled that progress in relations would depend on Canada distancing itself from Washington’s China policies.
An editorial published Jan. 12 in the state-controlled China Daily warned that improved ties would be meaningless if Ottawa continued to align with the United States on China.
“If Ottawa still chooses to subject its China policy to the will of Washington again in the future, it will only render its previous efforts to mend ties with Beijing in vain,” the editorial said.
Washington is expected to closely monitor Carney’s visit and any trade deals or concessions that result. Some Canadian industry groups have urged the government to seek breakthroughs in its trade dispute with China, though such moves risk widening the foreign-policy gap with the United States.
China imposed tariffs last year on Canadian agricultural and seafood products after Canada introduced surtaxes on Chinese steel, aluminum, and electric vehicles, following similar actions by the Biden administration in late 2024.
Trump was also asked whether Chinese automobiles would ever be allowed into the U.S. market. He said China is “taking over” Europe’s auto sector, while a 100 percent U.S. tariff on Chinese cars has protected domestic manufacturers.
The European Union, which has lower duties on Chinese electric vehicles, has seen Chinese automakers nearly double sales between 2024 and 2025.
Domestic Political Reaction
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Jan. 14 that Canada should not retreat from its tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, calling them a national security threat due to potential surveillance risks and a danger to Canadian jobs.
Poilievre suggested Ottawa instead use a $1 billion loan provided to B.C. Ferries—used to purchase Chinese-made ships—as leverage to push Beijing to lift its retaliatory tariffs on Canadian exports.
Original article
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