In his most recent outline, Promethean Action PAC’s Mike Steger puts the U.S-Canada trade conflict into an accurate context where China is really the enterprise to gain or fail.  This is a very well presented segment worth watching.

CTH readers will note our long track of this dynamic.  In short, as NAFTA predictably evolved, and as the U.S. manufacturing base was deconstructed, suddenly things shifted.  Canada and Mexico became important as entry doors into the U.S. consumer market for the products outsourced by the destruction of the American manufacturing base.

Steger appropriately uses the auto-sector as an example because it is the easiest sector to quantify damage.  By playing the long game, China has thoroughly compromised the EU and U.K auto market. In 2025 China exported 1.2 million vehicles into Europe. Europe only exported 200,000 vehicles into China; a net trade deficit of 1 million vehicles in Beijing’s favor.

Chinese cars now represent over ten percent of all EU vehicles on the road, and this is only the beginning stage of the collapse of the EU industrial base that Germany and Brussels have only recently started to grasp.  The pace is irreversible at this point for Europe, and now China has turned their attention toward Canada.   This is why the U.S-Canada trade conflict matters!

Canada is the entryway to do in North America what China has done in Europe. WATCH:

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In the graph below, look at how fast things move once the foothold is established by policy.  This is stunning.

When President Trump left office in Term-1 (Jan ’21), Europe was exporting around 400,000 cars to China, and China was exporting around 175,000 cars to Europe.

Just five years later, Europe is exporting 200,000 cars to China, and China is exporting 1.2 million cars to Europe.

This is why Germany’s auto-sector is in a state of rapid collapse, represented by Volkswagen’s recent announcements to close factories, chut down models and eliminate up to 100,000 jobs.  LOOK:

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When Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney tells President Trump that there are limits on the Chinese EVs Canada is currently allowing, no reasonable person can look at the recent history of both BYD/GEELY and not understand what is likely from Carney’s decision.

In many ways Canada’s antagonism is creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Trump needs to immediately protect the vulnerable U.S. position to restart strong manufacturing. That’s the reason for the Sec.301 Steel and Aluminum tariffs.

Additionally, the Sec.338 tariffs (50%) are necessary to close the access point, not because Canadian imports pose a threat, but because they are indistinguishable from Chinese component parts that are assembled into finished goods and exported from Canada.

Here’s an example of a possible scenario:

(1) Toyota and Honda have both told Canadian trade officials that without USMCA access to the U.S. market, there is no reason to maintain auto plants in Canada.

(2) The most effective protectionist position that Trump can take would be to terminate the USMCA.

(3) If Trump terminates the USMCA, auto plants in Canada will close.

(4) That’s the moment when Chinese EV companies BYD/GEELY, subsidized heavily by China, will swoop in and purchase those Canadian facilities for pennies on the dollar – based on the entry agreement that Mark Carney has already authorized.

President Trump needs to protect the USA from globalist trade policies on our border.  This is why the U.S-Canada trade conflict matters more than any other trade friction in the world.  There are trillions at stake.