Today is not a good day for the Canadian trade team.

It started with Quebec’s new Premier in Washington DC meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer {citation} in order to talk trade {SEE TIMELINE} saying on Twitter, “Quebec wants a renewal of the [USMCA] to ensure a stable and predictable framework for our economic exchanges.” However, Mrs. Christine Fréchette (pictured left) then bragged about having strategic discussions with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. {citation}

For those who might not know, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is a parasitic Wall Street and K-Street lobbying organization that has been locked out of trade influence since President Trump took office in 2017.  It was the U.S. CoC who sold out our manufacturing base, paid-off prior administrations and wrote the actual trade language in almost every trade deal that destroyed U.S. manufacturing.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is a lobbying organization who focuses on the bottom-line profits of U.S. multinational corporations, and they don’t care what happens domestically to American jobs, American manufacturing and American wages.  The CoC is the organization who created the rust belt and destroyed our manufacturing base under the guise of promoting a “service driven economy.”

If Canada want’s a successful trade negotiation with the USA, the Chamber of Commerce is the last organization they should be strategizing with.

Then comes Prime Minister Mark Carney who not only steps on a rake, but he also publicly insults President Trump and the entire U.S. trade team by saying every country in the world privately tells him they regret making a trade agreement with President Trump. ¹{Citation at 28:10 of Video}

I’m going to post the entire video of Prime Minister Mark Carney discussing USMCA (Canada calls CUSMA) trade negotiations because the tone deafness of it is off the charts. That includes the Canadian Prime Minister saying that Section 232 national security reviews are a violation of the U.S-Canada trade agreement.  Carney believes any independent U.S. trade position that negates trade with any Canadian sector is a violation of trade rules, yet he is afraid to sue over Sec 232 because he doesn’t want to discover the flaw in his mindset.

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Following direct remarks from both Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, a triggered Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney says the U.S. will not be permitted to dictate terms of the USMCA renegotiation, now scheduled for formal talks with Mexico only beginning May 25th.

According to the Canadian leadership they do not need the United States in order to maintain their economy.  The unfortunate people of Canada are very close to finding out exactly what that level of arrogance delivers.

USTR Jamieson Greer was just in Mexico meeting with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and the Mexican trade delegation. “Mexico’s economy minister Marcelo Ebrard ​said on Monday that ‌formal negotiations to review the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade pact, known ​as the USMCA, ​are due to begin the ⁠week of May ​25.”

“Tomorrow and this afternoon we ​will hear the U.S. side’s views. Once that is done, ​we will move ​on to the next phase, which ‌is ⁠formal negotiations. We expect formal negotiations to begin the week of May ​25,” ​Ebrard ⁠said following a meeting with U.S. Trade ​Representative Jamieson Greer.” {source}

Meanwhile Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney continues talking to his domestic audience about fighting Donald Trump and refusing to accept any terms that do not meet his current pontifications: “It’s not a case that the United States dictates the terms. We have a negotiation, we can come to a mutually successful outcome – it will take some time,” he continued.

In Washington, Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said unless Canada engaged in talks about broadening the so-called rules of origin that allow goods to enter the United States tariff-free, Washington might have to impose other border controls. {source}

As the rhetoric continues increasing, the possibility of a full block against the import of Canadian goods increases.

It is worth remembering, the recent Supreme Court decision that overturned the IEEPA tariffs also reinforced the unilateral power of the U.S. President to regulate any/all trade with any foreign country including a full block of trade if designated.  Canada is positioned to be the first nation to discover the expressed power of the U.S. President as affirmed by the United States Supreme Court.

One of the reasons why Canadians are oblivious to the potential collapse of their economy is because U.S. media reports are blocked from Canadian social media sites.  One of the infringements within the USMCA is the Canadian Law Bill [C-18, the Online News Act] that blocks information to Canadian citizens that is not supported by the Canadian government.

The people of Canada are stuck inside an Orwellian government constructed echo-chamber unable to hear opposing viewpoints.  They simply have no idea what is heading in their direction.  Which is incredibly ironic considering how much Mark Carney rails against Russian President Vladimir Putin, yet Canada has more restrictions on information than Russia.  Think about it. The need for control is a reaction to fear.

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A generally good big-picture overview here from the folks at Promethean PAC.

“In this midweek update, Susan Kokinda argues that Kevin Warsh’s Senate Banking Committee testimony—calling for “regime change” at the Federal Reserve and blaming inflation on excessive money creation—signals a broader shift aligned with the Trump administration against what she describes as an Imperial, British-led free-trade order.

Kokinda highlights Warsh’s criticism of post-2008 quantitative easing as benefiting financial asset holders while many Americans own no assets, and contrasts this with Democrats’ focus on divestment issues. Kokinda ties Warsh’s stance to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s emphasis on raising living standards over bailing out markets and to Trump’s comments on Fed independence. She then points to Trump’s April 20 Defense Production Act action citing market failures in energy infrastructure, including transformer shortages, as national-security threats, linking this to energy independence and Iran, and contrasts it with Mark Carney’s globalist posture and references to the War of 1812.”

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Consider the amount of money involved in the trilateral USMCA trade agreement.  It’s not just about trade and commerce between the USA, Canada and Mexico; the totality of the equation is derived from all of the third-party nations who trade into the North American trade bloc.  There are tens-of-trillions at stake.

As we have outlined for several years the trilateral trade agreement has several material flaws.  With the U.S. economy as the primary consumption economy, both Mexico and Canada derive significant benefits within the USMCA.  Additionally, both Canada and Mexico leverage their unique positions to gain economic benefit from third parties who want to use either country as a backdoor into the U.S. market.

President Trump has long wanted to eliminate the trilateral trade deal in favor of two more controllable bilateral deals, one with Mexico and one with Canada.  In large measure this approach is specifically to end the exploitation by third parties.  President Trump also noted in his discussions with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney that the primary function of the USMCA was to eliminate NAFTA.

Keep this in mind.  The purpose of the USMCA was to eliminate NAFTA.

Now we enter the phase of the USMCA where President Trump can exit the agreement or modify the core foundation of the agreement.

For the past fourteen months Mexico has been modifying their trade and economic policy in anticipation of a USMCA change. However, for the past fourteen months Canada has been combative against President Trump, stoking anger toward Trump, and the government of Canada has been openly proclaiming their intention to economically and politically fight and defeat President Trump.

Again, remember the scale of the money involved here.  Additionally, Canada doesn’t have an organic economy if they cannot exploit their market access.  If Trump restricts third party exploitation, Canada loses massive amounts of money.  This is the baseline for Canada’s reluctance to open up the USMCA for renegotiation; they cannot lose their third-party loophole or else they are really in a bad place.

This sets the stage for trillion-dollar interests to frame opposition not only toward President Trump, but also toward any of his economic team who are in alignment with the renegotiation of the USMCA.  Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is chief among those targets along with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick outlines the issue in the first part of this recent discussion. WATCH:

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During an appearance at the Hudson Institute, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer is asked to summarize the administration’s approach to upcoming USMCA (CUSMA) renegotiations.

USTR Greer emphasized the focus is on outcomes in review of the USMCA, not focusing on the previous trade structure itself. The results carry more weight than reviewing what was intended.  On June 1st Greer anticipates telling congress that the U.S. intends withdrawal, pending unilateral negotiations with both Canada and Mexico to resolve conflict.

Greer describes two different protocols within any negotiation to deal with the structural differences between both Canada and Mexico.  Those differences include a completely different import/export profile with each country, different sectors of goods, difference in the wage rates within each country and a structural difference in the way each country is establishing their own, independent free trade agreements with other third-party countries.  These baselines form the reason to tell congress of the dissolution, and on July 1st inform both Canada and Mexico about it.

In the interim, the points of conflict are currently being negotiated with Mexico toward resolution.  The same negotiation is expected later between the U.S. and Canada; however, it sounds like that engagement will take place after congress is informed of the points of conflict.  WATCH (prompted):

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You would have to read dozens of energy industry reports to get the information provided here in this exceptionally well-done news segment.

Sky News economics and data editor Ed Conway presents a fantastic look at how the issue with the Strait of Hormuz has impacted the global distribution of energy, oil, LNG and Kerosene (jet fuel), with particular emphasis on the vulnerabilities of the “modern industrialized western nations.”

Conway never points the finger to the “net zero” carbon goals of Europe, the U.K and Australia. However, he shows the outcome of their dependence on production and refining by other non-participating nations. The timelines clearly show, as the Green Energy policies were pushed the vulnerability inherent within any supply shock begins to get worse. This is a very well-presented data-driven analysis that is worth watching.

The last two-minutes also shred the claims by EU and British leadership, and highlights how Europe and the U.K are now dependent on the United States to meet their energy needs. WATCH:

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This story is absurd, but also typically Canadian because there’s a background of duplicity at work.

The topline story is that Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau is resigning from his office following backlash in Quebec after he released a statement of condolence in the English language.  The Quebec legislature and Prime Minister Mark Carney both demanded his resignation because they were offended that Rousseau did not speak French.

Air Canada was involved in a horrific crash at New York’s La Guardia airport.  While the airline was not at fault, the CEO released a public message of condolence for the pilots who were killed and the passengers who were injured.  The message was delivered in English.  That’s the substantive reasoning given for the Canadian outrage.

(VIA NBC) – Air Canada announced Monday its CEO will retire later this year, after Michael Rousseau was criticized for his English-only message of condolence following this month’s deadly crash in New York.

Canada’s largest airline, based in French-speaking Quebec, said Rousseau told the board he will leave by the end of the third quarter.

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Put this in the USMCA (CUSMA) elimination/negotiation file.  Europe has already been the visible example of what happens when you open your market to low price Chinese EVs.

With the recent agreement by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Chinese auto manufacturers are now rushing to establish the dealerships, before the Beijing-Canada deal becomes an issue in the USMCA negotiation.

China is NOT going into Canada because they foresee a great market of Snow Mexicans purchasing their low price EVs.  They are going into Canada as a proactive measure to establish a North American footprint with an eye toward the USA.

(VIA MSM) – BYD and Chery are accelerating plans to establish a dealership network in Canada after the country introduced a quota allowing tens of thousands of Chinese-made EVs to enter at reduced tariffs. The rollout will begin in Toronto before expanding to other major cities, with BYD targeting about 20 dealerships in its first year. This marks a significant new front in North American EV competition, as Chinese automakers seek growth outside the U.S., where prohibitive tariffs keep them out.

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This is one of those small stories that carries the potential for significant domestic economic gains.

As many are aware, the U.S. imports a lot of softwood lumber from Canada. Combined with the energy products the lumber sector represents the top two U.S. imports from Canada.  With Venezuela now potentially positioned to replace the former, USDA Rural Development now stimulates domestic lumber development potentially positioned to replace the latter.

Taken as a whole, these two approaches significantly weaken the Canadian leverage that could be deployed in a Free Trade Agreement negotiation.  Assuming, of course, the USMCA is dissolved in favor of two bilateral FTAs.

USDA Press Release – At the Advanced Bioeconomy Leadership Conference today, U.S. Department of Agriculture Administrator for the Rural Business and Cooperative Service J.R. Claeys announced the U.S. Department of Agriculture is guaranteeing $115.2 million across eight states through the Timber Production Expansion Guaranteed Loan Program (TPEP) to ensure sawmills and other wood processing facilities have the necessary funding to establish, reopen, expand, or improve their operations.

Today’s announcement includes recipients in the states of California, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Oklahoma, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

These investments represent a commitment by the Trump Administration to expand American timber production by 25%, reduce wildfire risk, and save American lives and communities by strengthening domestic wood processing capacity.

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In the midst of the two pontificating princesses of Parliament verbally slapping each other with cashmere sweaters, Prime Minister Mark Carney made a rather remarkable statement.

According to the Canadian Prime Minister, he has blocked ten thousand IRGC members from entering Canada {at 1:00 minute of video below}. Now, why would 10,000 Iranian Revolutionary Guards think it was a solid option to exit the conflict for safety in Canada? WATCH:

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