The White House Office of Trade and Manufacturing released an extensive report this week identifying the major nations who enable China to transship goods into the U.S market in an effort to avoid tariffs.  [REPORT HERE]

Within the report several nations and regions are identified as being used by Chinese manufacturers to avoid U.S. customs and duty enforcement mechanisms.  However, both Canada and Mexico are cited as primary enablers of the process.

[SOURCE HERE]

The issue strikes at the heart of the problem identified long ago with the NAFTA agreement, and the problem only worsens when the USMCA provisions on country of origin are not enforced.

When you remove oil and lumber, the majority of Canada’s manufactured exports to the USA contain Chinese component parts and this has been the source of much friction in the current trade negotiations.  The manufacturing supply chain within all free trade agreements only works when the source of component goods is accurately recorded.

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The Canadian trade officials continue to misread the room.  Threatening the Trump administration with something the Trump administration benefits from, is not exactly the best trade strategy.

In the background the DOJ has just arrested a woman for her part in a trafficking operation, smuggling Indian illegal aliens into the USA through Canada {citation}.  Simultaneously, a petition within Canada to remove U.S. Ambassador to Canada, Pete Hoekstra, is gaining support because Hoekstra is focused on American best interests and not looking out for the best interests of Canadians {citation}.

On the economic front, Canadian trade minister Dominic LeBlanc met with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer for the third time in three weeks. However, it’s Canada’s Chief Trade Negotiator Janice Charette, who also participated in discussions, making headlines with threats.

Janice Charette is telling the Canadian public that formal trade discussions with the USA will end if President Trump and USTR Jamieson Greer trigger the 50% tariffs against Canadian goods which are scheduled to begin on August 19th.

President Trump and USTR Greer announced last month the U.S. would begin 50% tariffs on a range of Canadian products. the tariffs are intended as reciprocal action for Canada’s counter-tariffs on U.S. automobiles and steel, as well as decisions by Canadian provinces to boycott American alcohol. {CITATION} According to USTR Greer the tariffs will affect approximately $20 billion in Canadian imports, representing around 5.2% of the $383 billion in goods the United States imported from Canada in 2025. USMCA covered products would not be exempt from the tariff.

Ms. Charette is reported to have made it clear if the U.S. goes through with the tariffs, the Canadians will pull out of USMCA discussions and walk away from renegotiating the trilateral trade agreement.

This is apparently the threat from Canada.  However, when contrast against the intent to eliminate the multilateral trade agreement, the threat carries terms completely acceptable to the Trump administration.

CANADA – Canada’s lead trade negotiator with the U.S. Janice Charette has warned her American counterparts that if the White House imposes new 50 per cent tariffs on Aug. 19, it could put further trade talks at risk.

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Senator John Curtis says, “Utah employers tell me time and again how difficult it’s become to find enough workers to meet growing demands.”  Where, “Utah employers” is more accurately described as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

As a consequence, Senator Curtis (Utah) and Senator Mark Kelly (AZ) are proposing that individual states should have the right to issue H1B visas and import foreign workers without the federal immigration program in control.  As the narrative is sold, there are no Utah Americans to fill the jobs available.  That’s their story and they’re sticking to it.

[X Source – Story Link]

On the bad news side, there is no issue that shows the disconnect between the American public and federal politicians at a greater disparity than the issue(s) surrounding immigration and the various work visa programs.  On the good news side, if you look at the comments toward ideas represented by Curtis you see about a 9/1 ratio against them.

Unfortunately, the DC politicians will not listen to the 90% against them, because they have unlimited power and affluence as delivered by multinational corporations and lobbyists like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (US CoC); the modern inverted Fascism.

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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.

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As expected, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer has completed the Section 301 review of “forced labor practices” in manufacturing and trade. [USTR Announcement Here]

As a result of the findings, a tariff rate of 10% to 12.5% is being added to the goods from a host of countries evaluated.  These 301 duties are in addition to currently existing tariff rates. [FACT SHEET] Trading partners that have made commitments to adopt, and effectively enforce, forced labor import prohibitions will have a 10% tariff, and trading partners that have failed to adopt a forced labor import prohibition will have a 12.5% tariff rate.

• The following 54 economies have failed to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor:

Algeria; Angola; Argentina; Australia; the Bahamas; Bahrain; Bangladesh; Brazil; Cambodia; Chile; China, People’s Republic of; Colombia; Costa Rica; Dominican Republic; Egypt; El Salvador; Guatemala; Guyana; Honduras; Hong Kong, China; India; Iraq; Israel; Japan; Jordan; Kazakhstan; Kuwait; Libya; Malaysia; Morocco; New Zealand; Nicaragua; Nigeria; Norway; Oman; Peru; the Philippines; Qatar; Russia; Saudi Arabia; Singapore; South Africa; South Korea; Sri Lanka; Switzerland; Taiwan; Thailand; Trinidad and Tobago; Türkiye; United Arab Emirates; United Kingdom; Uruguay; Venezuela; and Vietnam.

• The following six economies have failed to effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor:

Canada, Ecuador, the European Union, Indonesia, Mexico, and Pakistan.

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Susan Kokinda from the Promethean Action PAC believes the USMCA tariff and trade issue is not a simple U.S–Canada dispute; rather it’s a broader conflict about U.S. sovereignty vs the British empire.

Kokinda points to how Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is staffing his government with figures tied to the British Crown and globalist institutions: trade minister Dominic LeBlanc also leads King Charles’s Privy Council, new Chief Operating Officer Maia Johnson is an American Democratic operative linked to Clinton and Bloomberg networks, and new the Governor General Louise Arbour comes from UN legal roles associated with the International Criminal Court.

Promethean Action believes that under Prime Minister Mark Carney, Canada is not a nation, it’s the new front for the British Empire, and President Trump’s new Canadian tariffs should be viewed through this prism.  WATCH:

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It is exceptionally annoying to see the various members of the Senate stand in front of the microphones and discuss the importance of trade policy, while they sparsely attend testimony from U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Jamieson Greer.

In the prompted segment below (I skipped the insufferable Wyden TDS), USTR Greer is asked about the timeline for the USMCA and notes he is going to Mexico immediately following the hearing.  WATCH:

The cognitive dissonance within the Democrats on the committee is stunning.

Senator Bennet worries the USA may lose its position as the world’s #1 exporter of food; at the same time, he waxes philosophically about the U.S. “affordability” of the same food.

Senator Whitehouse worries about the corporations getting the majority of the tariff reimbursements, while saying there’s no way that foreign countries offset the tariffs with subsidies – because that would mean the corporations are getting windfall massive tariff profits due to the Supreme Court…..  Which is EXACTLY what has happened, duh!

Folks, our legislative bodies are filled with idiots. We are not sending our best. lol

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Ontario Premier Doug Ford has a message to President Trump and to all Americans. Premier Ford promises to dismantle the U.S. economy if President Trump continues to threaten tariffs and trade sanctions.

Considering the economy of the USA is ten-times larger than Canada, that’s quite a threat from Premier Doug Ford. WATCH:  

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Personally, I think all this back-and-forth banter is no longer worth the surface effort.  It would be much easier, and now affirmed as constitutionally appropriate by the Supreme Court, if President Trump just executed a full trade embargo against all Canadian goods for a period of 60-days.

Perhaps that way Canada will recognize just how vulnerable they are.  Perhaps not, but it’s worth the effort.  Just ban all imports and exports for 60-days and let’s see what happens.

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In the first half of this CNBC interview with U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer, the Ambassador walks through the reasoning, purpose and intent of the recently announced 50% tariff rate against Canadian imported goods.

As noted by USTR Greer the Canadians are applying two separate metrics within their trade agreement with Europe and the USA.  Toward Europe there are no limits and quotas on dairy products, toward the USA there are severe limits and quotas applied by third party brokers (co-ops owned by Canadian dairy farms) leveraged by the Canadian government.  This is one example of Canadian duplicity.

Additionally, by the various provincial governments of Canada banning the import and/or sale of U.S. products, and with Canada putting caps and limits on automobiles, these USA trade actions are being confronted by the 50% countervailing duties against Canadian imports.  Greer also calls ‘bulls**t’ on Carney’s double speak.  WATCH:

The trade discussion with Canada returns at the 10:00 minute mark. Jamieson Greer notes we have always had trade issues with Canada for decades. There was a significant percentage of the population who are against offshoring jobs, which is what NAFTA essentially did in North America.

It is also worth emphasizing that President Trump wants Canada to diversify. Both U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra and President Trump have said, repeatedly, President Trump wants Canada to go make other bilateral deals with other nations.

Why? Two main reasons.

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{Bumped – By Request More Analysis Added}

It is very obvious from the construct and details of this announcement that U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer has completed a comprehensive review of the retaliatory action by Canada that followed the U.S. Section 232 tariffs on Steel and Aluminum. {FACT SHEET HERE}

Last year two countries retaliated against the U.S. for the 232 (steel and aluminum) tariffs, China and Canada. The USTR office has now quantified the tariff and non-tariff barriers triggered by Canada in 2025 and provided President Trump with a financial quantification of the trade impact.

The three Canadian retaliatory sectors highlighted include: (1) Alcoholic Beverages, (2) Motor Vehicles, (3) Dairy Products. These are the three segments quantified by USTR Greer that form the baseline for the U.S. to retaliate with countervailing duties.

Effective 30 days from now, August 16, 2026, President Trump has established a 50% tariff rate against a wide variety of Canadian imports. Essentially three major Annexes: {LIST 1 – LIST 2 – LIST 3} under the authority of Section 338.

♦ Section 338 authorizes the President, if he determines it will serve the public interest, to offset any burden or disadvantage placed on the commerce of the United States by an unequal imposition or discrimination by a foreign country by specifying and declaring additional duties not to exceed 50 percent ad valorem (or its equivalent) and not to take effect earlier than 30 days after the President’s proclamation finding that a foreign country imposes an unreasonable charge, exaction, regulation, or limitation that is not equally enforced on the like articles of every foreign country, or discriminates in fact against U.S. commerce in a way that places the commerce of the United States at a disadvantage compared to the commerce of any foreign country.

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