By David Lawder
WASHINGTON, July 28 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he does not care about updating the North American trade agreement as Canada disclosed plans to send senior trade officials to Washington for more talks this week amid new tariffs and heightened trade tensions.
Trump, who on July 1 opted against extending the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, told Fox News Channel’s “Fox and Friends” program that the six-year-old trade pact was more important to the U.S.’ North American neighbors.
Asked if he would update the U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement, Trump said in a phone call to the program: “I don’t care. I mean, I don’t really want to. I’d rather be independent. Here’s the thing: Mexico and Canada need us. We don’t need them. The deal is important for them. It’s not important for us.”
Trump’s decision not to renew USMCA during a review meeting set in motion a decade-long wind-down of the trade pact unless the three countries can agree on revisions before then.
The president’s trade chief, Jamieson Greer, held a third round of talks with Mexico last week aimed at updating USMCA, but the discussions revealed deep differences over how to tighten regional automotive content rules. Trump has breached the USMCA duty-free zone by imposing a 25% tariff on Mexican- and Canadian-built cars and trucks and 50% on their steel and aluminum products on national security grounds.
The tariffs put Mexico and Canada at a trade disadvantage to South Korea, Japan and the European Union, but Trump’s comments suggest that he believes his strategy is working to bring back manufacturing to the United States. He cited Toyota’s recent announcement that it intends to invest $3.6 billion to expand truck production in Texas to build a pickup there that it now assembles in Mexico.
“We have the hottest car business. We’re right now building more car plants than at any time in our history,” Trump said, adding that automakers “have no tariffs if they build their product here.”
CANADA SEEKS MORE TALKS
Canada has thus far been left out of formal negotiations over USMCA but has continued high-level conversations with Greer.
Dominic LeBlanc, the Canadian minister in charge of U.S. trade, will travel to Washington for meetings this week, his spokesperson said, marking the first in-person meetings since Trump’s administration announced additional 50% tariffs on Canadian hockey sticks, beer, dairy, plywood and other products.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Trade Representative’s office did not immediately respond to a query on plans for talks this week.
USTR has said the tariffs, which cover about $20 billion worth of Canadian imports, are a response to Canada’s retaliation against Trump’s autos and metals tariffs, moves by some provinces to pull U.S. liquor from store shelves and a lack of concessions on access to Canada’s dairy market.
After the announcement of the new tariffs, imposed under previously never-used Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he and Trump agreed to intensify trade negotiations.
UNIONS URGE TARIFF RECONSIDERATION
LeBlanc will be accompanied to Washington by Canada’s chief negotiator to the U.S., Janice Charette, said the spokesperson, who did not provide a specific date for the meetings.
Canada’s calls for relief from U.S. tariffs got some backing from two major industrial unions on Tuesday.
The United Steelworkers and International Association of Machinists, which represent workers in both the U.S. and Canada, jointly urged Greer to reconsider tariffs on Canadian goods and forge a more cooperative trade relationship so that both countries can jointly confront China’s unfair trade practices that fuel excess industrial capacity.
“Our two nations share a deep collaboration built on decades of economic integration as well as intelligence and defense cooperation,” United Steelworkers International President Roxanne Brown said in a statement.
“Rather than imposing further tariffs through Section 338 or any other mechanism, we should instead work together with our Canadian allies to limit illegal trade practices and advance our shared prosperity.”
(Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu in Washington and Promit Mukherjee in Ottawa; editing by Susan Heavey and Nia Williams)
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