In the world of Trumpian geopolitical trade stuff, three issues are very interesting to watch. (1) The strategic reset with Russia which could break the official western construct of financial control. (2) The proactive and defensive positioning of Mexico (desperate attempt to retain economic attachment), and (3) the certain dissolution of the USMCA what Canadians call CUSMA.

Canadian media are starting to realize something we have talked about on these pages for years; President Trump intends to end the USMCA because the USMCA was used as a fracture point to eliminate NAFTA.

Wall Street, the U.S. Congress, the massive K-Street lobbying network around the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the entire political apparatus of business and industry would never permit the end to NAFTA; too many trillions at stake. So, President Trump replaced NAFTA with the interim USMCA, which was better but factually more useful in elimination of the original.

Now, as we have discussed by highlighting President Trump’s no-so-subtle words on the issue, the Canadian media is realizing the USMCA will be dissolved in favor of two independently negotiated bilateral trade agreements; one with Canada and one with Mexico.

🚨MAJOR BREAKING

Trump signals that he could EXIT from USMCA entirely.

This is EXTINCTION LEVEL to Canada.

He going to do it. I have a strong feeling about this.

We’re talking about 400,000 jobs and an instant severe recession! pic.twitter.com/X2uIQaJLQ3

— Tablesalt 🇨🇦🇺🇸 (@Tablesalt13) December 4, 2025

(CTV) – U.S. President Donald Trump could decide next year to withdraw from the Canada-United States-Mexico trade agreement (CUSMA), Politico reported on Thursday, citing U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.

“The president’s view is he only wants deals that are a good deal. The reason why we built a review period into CUSMA was in case we needed to revise it, review it or exit it,” Greer told Politico’s White House bureau chief Dasha Burns in a podcast episode that airs Friday.

Greer also raised the idea of negotiating separately with Canada and Mexico and dividing the agreement into two parts in the podcast, adding that he spoke with Trump about that possibility just this week.

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This is a rather remarkable development that requires an understanding of what is true and accurate, versus what is stated as the justification.

In short, Prime Minister Mark Carney is conceding defeat to President Trump and positioning the Canadian economy to be compliant with U.S-Mexico trade regulations.

However, Carney is not saying that, indeed he cannot; he’s spent over a year telling Canadians that President Trump’s trade and economic demands are not going to be accepted by Canada.  However, what he is factually doing is exactly what President Trump has demanded.

Prime Minister Carney is saying he is restricting Steel and Aluminum imports from non-free trade agreement countries, and he is lowering the tonnage of Steel and Aluminum that will be permitted for import.  His claim is that this approach will help drive up “domestic demand” for Canadian Steel and Aluminum, but that’s ancillary to the real objective.

President Trump has demanded Canada stop importing cheap steel and aluminum mostly from China; including manufactured component goods that are made with steel and aluminum (think autos).  Canada would not stop, because they could not stop.  Their manufacturing base, green energy and climate change economy, is more of a component assembly system now.

So, President Trump hit Canada with a 35% tariff, and things got ugly.  In June Trump raised the tariff to 50%. The back and forth has gone on all year.

Carney now announces restrictions on imported steel and aluminum, as well as restrictions on imported derivative goods that come from steel and aluminum, in combination with a spending plan to bolster the Canadian steel and aluminum manufacturing base.  This ends up shifting the Canadian industrial sector to making steel and aluminum products without Chinese import dependency.

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On Friday President Trump noted (off-the-cuff) he was ambivalent to the trade interests of Canada and had no intention to restart discussions. However, Trump also said he holds no personal animosity toward Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney for the stupid and antagonistic move they made in purchasing a manipulative television ad intended to undermine the Trump trade position.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Mark Carney confirmed he did apologize to President Trump for the Canadian effort.

GYEONGJU, South Korea, Nov 1 (Reuters) – Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Saturday he had apologised to U.S. President Donald Trump over an anti-tariff political advertisement and had told Ontario Premier Doug Ford not to run it.

Carney, speaking to reporters after attending an Asia-Pacific summit in South Korea, said he had made the apology privately to Trump when they both attended a dinner hosted by South Korea’s president on Wednesday.

“I did apologise to the president,” Carney said, confirming comments by Trump made on Friday.

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Oh, this is funny…. 

[SOURCE]

Think big picture. Think strategically, like Donald Trump.  He’s trying to push Canada into a desperation play where they strike trade deals with China, knowing he’s holding a USA deal with Chairman Xi in his back pocket that will undercut Canada completely.  Watch.

The Free Trade Agreements being made for the USA all over Southeast and Central Asia are stunning.  After over $500 billion in deals made in Japan, President Trump and team now head to South Korea.

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For those who have followed along with the U.S-Canada trade positioning, the current status of conflict between the Trump administration and the government of Canada is not surprising.  {GO DEEP} Going all the way back to the replacement of NAFTA, with the USMCA, President Trump always said he did not favor multilateral trade deals with multiple countries; instead, he preferred bilateral free trade agreements.

Some people have construed the bilateral preference of President Trump to be the elimination of globalism in favor of nationalism in trade agreements.

While the outcome of the Trump approach indeed aligns with that theme, it is not specifically the objective of President Trump to eliminate global trade, but rather to focus on specific interests in trade that benefit the unique nature of each party involved.

As a result, the USMCA -or CUSMA as said in Canada- is not in alignment with a bilateral free trade agreement, and the conflicted differences between trade with Mexico and trade with Canada are an outcome of this dynamic.  The solution is simply to eliminate the multilateral in favor of the bilateral approach.  This is the objective of President Trump as expressed.

That said, the USMCA covers approximately 60% of U.S-Canada trade, and the remaining 40% is being debated and argued.  President Trump would prefer to just deal with 100% of the trade sectors in one free trade agreement; hence, his ambivalence until the USMCA is dissolved.

Canada, on the other hand, continues to demand that all trade conflicts be resolved without opening up the entire USMCA. Again, another conflict. Canada is like the dependent spouse in a divorce arguing for child support payments when the “children” are in their twenties.

The current status is President Trump pulling back completely from discussions with Canada, while the various provincial Premiers and Prime Minister Mark Carney antagonize over the issue.

At a certain point, when the entire national economic plan of Canada is based on “Donald Trump bad”, and all political messaging internally is to proclaim they have no alternative policy positions, the Canadians might not realize it, but they are confirming complete and total dependency on the nation Donald Trump represents.

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As previously outlined, Canada is so entrenched with their ‘orange man bad’ syndrome, they just cannot get out of their own way on stupid trade decisions.  {GO DEEP}

You might remember Mexico retreating from Chinese electric vehicle (EV) development following the November 2024 election of Donald Trump.

China was on the cusp of investing $5 to $7 billion in new EV manufacturing in Mexico, when President Trump announced he would impose massive tariffs to block any import of Chinese EVs made in Mexico. Trump won the election and together China and Mexico scrapped their plan.

Europe then stepped on the Chinese EV rake and began purchasing carbon credits from Chinese EV companies to avoid the “climate change” auto goals and subsequent fines to EU car companies for not hitting EV production targets. In essence, Europe is paying Chinese EV companies for carbon credits, thereby subsidizing lower priced Chinese EVs in Europe. The EU is paying China to destroy their own auto industry.

Now, it’s Canada’s turn.

As a result of President Trump asserting tariffs against imported autos, the large auto companies are abandoning plans to build or expand auto manufacturing in Canada. The Canadians are angry, and the professional political class in Canada is doing everything they can to continue ramping up opposition to Donald Trump.

With increased tariffs against Canada, and with the likely dissolution of the USMCA (CUSMA) coming in the near future, the Canadian govt of Mark Carney has been traveling the world to find alternative markets for their goods and services. The main targets for new Canadian economic and trade relations are the U.K, EU and China.

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Wharton Professor and noted economist Mohamed El-Erian appeared on Fox News to discuss the jaw-dropping success President Trump is having with his global trade reset.

As noted by El-Erian no one, including El-Erian himself, expected President Trump to be able to navigate a global trade and economic reset with such stunning success.  The entire economic policy is being driven by the personal influence of President Trump as he leverages tariffs and policy incentives to the benefit of the USA economy exclusively.

The scale of Trump’s agenda is difficult to overstate, and China is now positioned to feel incredible pressure to align Beijing policy with the requests of President Trump.  “We thought there would be a massive retaliation against the US, there hasn’t been” El-Erian noted.  “We’re collecting $800 Billion of tariff revenue” and “inflation has waned,” he said.  This is a remarkable situation that few economists could accurately predict.  WATCH:

WOW — Economist/Wharton Professor says TARIFFS achieved something economists DIDN’T think possible!

“We thought there would be a massive retaliation against the US, there hasn’t been…we’re collecting $800 Billion of tariff revenue…inflation waned.”

INCREDIBLE, @POTUS !! 👏 pic.twitter.com/OaNtWqyTcf

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) October 27, 2025

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This is not a surprise to readers here as we have discussed the Trump trade agenda with clear, non-pretending eyes.  The ASEAN trip by President Trump is a masterclass in leveraging trade relationships and creating isolation for China.  The downstream consequences for Canada continue to build as the Carney administration doubles down on their entrenched and futile opposition.

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United States Trade Rep. Jamieson Greer is a very solid member of the Trump trade team.  Having learned at the knee of former USTR Robert Lighthizer, you can see the stability of thought in the consistency of approach.

USTR Greer outlines the ongoing discussions between the U.S. and China on the framework of a stable trade relationship.  Against a myriad of geopolitical chess moves on the economic and trade front, Greer and Treasury Secretary Bessent play key roles in executing the Trump Doctrine.

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In the background of the President Trump and Chairman Xi meeting, we can see the broad contours of President Trump’s strategy toward both the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the China-Canada trade relationship.

If President Trump can formulate a strong, actionable and enforceable free trade agreement with Chairman Xi, it will undercut the ability of Canada to assemble cheap component goods not available in the U.S. manufacturing equation for total cost of goods.  This puts Trump in an even stronger position heading into the 2026 USMCA (CUSMA) dissolution phase.

Additionally, despite the mainstream thoughts to the contrary, putting distance between Russia and China is not averse to the interests of Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, who would strategically prefer to do business with the ‘West’ over Beijing.  However, China does not want to see their Biden-created tentacle weakened in Russia.

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I have talked to a lot of Canadians on the issues of economics and trade. As a result, I can say with complete sincerity that not since the COVID-19 examples of New Zealand (lockdowns) and Australia (vaxx), has a nation engaged in such a level of mass cognitive dissonance as the govt of Canada on the issue of economics and trade – in the past few years. It is stunning.

To understand the reality of the situation Here’s an IN-DEPTH LINK. Apparently, few really understand the full scope of the issues.

President Trump responds to the latest decision of the Canadian government.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: “Canada was caught, red handed, putting up a fraudulent advertisement on Ronald Reagan’s Speech on Tariffs. The Reagan Foundation said that they, “created an ad campaign using selective audio and video of President Ronald Reagan. The ad misrepresents the Presidential Radio Address,” and “did not seek nor receive permission to use and edit the remarks. The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute is reviewing its legal options in this matter.”

“The sole purpose of this FRAUD was Canada’s hope that the United States Supreme Court will come to their “rescue” on Tariffs that they have used for years to hurt the United States. Now the United States is able to defend itself against high and overbearing Canadian Tariffs (and those from the rest of the World as well!). Ronald Reagan LOVED Tariffs for purposes of National Security and the Economy, but Canada said he didn’t! Their Advertisement was to be taken down, IMMEDIATELY, but they let it run last night during the World Series, knowing that it was a FRAUD.”

“Because of their serious misrepresentation of the facts, and hostile act, I am increasing the Tariff on Canada by 10% over and above what they are paying now. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” [SOURCE]

President Trump said he will not be meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney in Malaysia.

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Last night President Trump terminated all trade discussions with Canada following the government of Canada running a false political ad in the USA, using manipulated Ronald Reagan remarks against U.S tariffs.

Earlier today Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney spoke about the issue to his assembled stenographers in media, and shortly thereafter he had a phone call with Ontario Premier Doug Ford.  Carney and Ford decided to run the ad during the World Series and then stop it on Monday.

It would be illegal for the USA government to run an ad in Canada.  The Canadian government does not permit foreign interests to express political opinions against their domestic policies on their controlled broadcasting operations.

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BREAKING: “Our intention was always to initiate a conversation about the kind of economy that Americans want to build and the impact of tariffs on workers and businesses. We’ve achieved our goal, having reached U.S. audiences at the highest levels.

I’ve directed my team to keep putting our message in front of Americans over the weekend so that we can air our commercial during the first two World Series games.

In speaking with Prime Minister Carney, Ontario will pause its U.S. advertising campaign effective Monday so that trade talks can resume.

The people elected our government to protect Ontario—our workers, businesses, families and communities. That’s exactly what I’m doing. Like I said earlier today: Canada and the U.S. are neighbours, friends and allies.

We’re so much stronger when we work together. Let’s work together to build Fortress Am-Can and make our two countries stronger, more prosperous and more secure.”  ~ Ontario Premier Doug Ford

U.S-Canada trade negotiations remain terminated.  I strongly support a full U.S-Canada border shutdown, trade embargo and visa revocation. The Canadian economy must be destroyed in order to protect the USA and Mexico from toxic leftism.

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