Those who have followed the NAFTA/USMCA storyline will remember that Volkswagen made a strategic bet on North America when it decided to expand production into Mexico for the Audi Q5 mid-size SUV brand. That was an analytical mistake as Audi does not make any vehicles inside the USA.

The Volkswagen leadership have made several blunders since that initial decision to open plants in Mexico. The massive push on EVs without understanding the USA market was a strategic mistake. The decision to align financial survival with a deep Chinese partnership was another.

Meanwhile, back in both Brussels and Germany the political calculus around energy policy was catastrophic for the entire auto industry. The costs of industrial production skyrocketed, making the price of SUVs for the U.S. market far above the consumer’s pocketbook, and a pre-existing 25% tariff on Trucks/SUVs made things worse.

Essentially, every decision made by Volkswagen/Audi with the North American market in mind was exactly the opposite of what they should have done. In Germany the entire Volkswagen family of autos is shedding 100,000 jobs in a desperate restructuring effort. However, Audi is now looking at North America again and trying to correct their previous mistakes.

President Donald Trump and Audi Chief Executive Gernot Döllner

Audi is now announcing a $4 billion investment in an SUV manufacturing plant in Macon, Georgia. The facility will make the Q7, Q8 and Q9 SUV models in Georgia with the Q5 remaining in Mexico (for now).

GEORGIA – German automaker Audi has announced plans to invest $4 billion in its first American production facility, to be built in Georgia, with the goal of manufacturing up to 200,000 vehicles annually and creating about 4,500 jobs. The decision was revealed during a campaign rally in Perry, Georgia, where President Donald Trump and Audi Chief Executive Gernot Döllner appeared together on stage, highlighting the significance of the investment for both the region and the company.

Construction on the new plant at the Middle Georgia Mega Site is expected to begin in 2027, with the first vehicles rolling off the assembly line in the early 2030s. The facility aims to produce premium SUVs specifically tailored for North American customers, establishing North America as Audi’s third major production pillar alongside Europe and China.

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Two fundamental issues that Canadian politicians and media keep hidden from Canadians. First, in the 2025 U.S. Supreme Court decision last year about tariffs, the court outlined that the executive branch can constitutionally ban trade with another country. Second, the U.S. can exit the USMCA with a six-month notification.

There is an awful lot of pretending and gaslighting within this general discussion segment; purposefully advanced to keep the Canadian people in the dark. However, that said, Canada’s chief trade negotiator to the United States, Janice Charette does admit that tariff free access to the U.S market is lost forever.

Janice Charette is participating in a discussion at the Toronto Global Forum, where she is questioned by Brian Tobin, vice chair of the BMO Financial Group about the trade relationship with the United States and the opinion that many Canadian officials have espoused that Canada just needs to outlast President Donald Trump.

Charette informs the audience that regardless of who is the U.S. President, tariffs will likely remain in place permanently because the amount of revenue being generated to the U.S. Treasury is too great for any President or congress to stop. PROMPTED – WATCH:

While almost all of her analysis is flawed, skewed and seriously underestimates the nature of the dynamic that Canada is facing, what Janice Charette outlines about how Donald Trump has shifted the national revenue model using global tariffs to offset national expenditures (her baseline) is accurate.

Beyond her statement it is worth pausing for a moment and using Charette’s frame of reference to reconsider the post WWII European revenue model.  It was/is President Trump’s model in reverse.

The Marshal plan, was essentially one-way tariffs on American trade that provided one-way benefits (revenue) that permitted the EU to rebuild after the second world war.  To Charlette’s framework, how willing was the EU mindset to change this beneficial economic outcome?

Answer: The EU fought it (and is still fighting it), perceiving the elimination of that benefit as an existential threat to their economic power. The EU became reliant on the Marshal Plan.

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Voters in Alberta, Canada rejected an independence referendum to become independent.  As the results are announced approximately 76% of Albertans voted to remain a province within Canada, with 23% voting for independence. {link}

While we have sincere respect for those who sought to get free of the Canadian madness, it is ultimately a good outcome for the USA.  A successful exit would have likely begun a process to merge with the USA as a 51st state.  Obviously adding another million+ progressive voices to the USA landscape would have been detrimental.

CANADA – Voters in Canada’s oil-rich province of Alberta have rejected a proposal to begin a process toward independence, results showed early Tuesday, delivering a victory for Prime Minister Mark Carney and supporters of Canadian unity amid President Trump’s trade war and annexation threats.

The vote was not a direct referendum on independence but would have set oil-rich Alberta on a path toward a future vote on separation from Canada.

With more than 1 million votes counted, about 76% supported remaining in Canada, compared with 23% who backed beginning a process that could lead to separation. (read more)

There is already an existing process for sane Canadians to exit the ‘mass formation psychosis’ that is worsening their condition.  Canadians can apply for legal immigration to the United States.

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Glenn Beck interviewed U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer last week.  Within the interview USTR Greer walks through some of the current geopolitical issues surrounding trade and MAGAnomics beginning with Iran, oil and gas prices, the diesel fuel agreement with Russia, then ongoing trade friction with Canada and a perspective on European industrial manufacturing.  Well worth watching:

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According to the latest data from Statistics Canada, the Canadian economy lost a net of 68,300 jobs in September. This follows a loss of 41,700 positions in August and wipes out all job gains for the entire year 2026.

The alarming results come after Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has led all provincial premiers in a coordinated effort to confront U.S. President Donald Trump through an “elbow’s up” program of political antagonism and trade conflict.

Based on economic scale, Canada losing 68,000 jobs in a month would be the U.S. equivalent of losing 500,000 jobs.  The “elbow’s up” program may be politically beneficial to Prime Minister Carney, but the economic consequences are crushing the northern neighbors.

The Canadian dollar immediately weakened after the jobs report and was trading down 0.44% at C$1.4287 to the US dollar, or 69.99 US cents. Yields on the two-year government bonds reversed early moves and were trading down 9.5 basis points to 2.410%.

Initially, when the trade war was announced, CTH anticipated a bottom for the CAD at 50¢/USD under the trade reciprocity program.  50¢ remains the forecast target when the termination of the USMCA (CUSMA) is announced, and analysts have the opportunity to gauge the outcome.

Meaning, if the Canadian trade surplus with the USA was eliminated, and if all the non-tariff barriers were removed, and if full trade reciprocity programs were instituted, and if Canada has to stand on its own economic footing with NATO spending requirements, current domestic tax rates and GDP growth factored, $1 CAD will be worth around 50¢ USD.

Remember, the Bank of Canada has already run the numbers on this. ……”A cascading series of events could cause a sharp loss of investor confidence and lead to a spike in demand for liquidity or rapid asset sales”… {MAY ’26}

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U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer appears on CNBC to discuss details of a new G20 sideline agreement with 14 other major economies to crack down on global factory overproduction, targeting excess manufacturing.

The discussion about the issues with Canada is around the 5:00 mark of the video below.  As previously noted, President Trump and USTR Greer are happy with the current status of tariffs against Canada, they are having the desired effect, and meanwhile the U.S. is negotiating a ¹bilateral trade deal with Mexico.

¹♦ $30.76 billion in remittances reached Mexico in the first half of 2026 — a lifeline tethered to U.S. manufacturing employment, which depends on whether both governments can reach a durable trade framework. {source} Mexico, the govt, the economy, their internal stability, cannot afford to risk losing that influx of financial support.

Mexico’s Economy Secretary Marcelo Ebrard came out of the G20 Trade Ministerial in Milwaukee last week sounding the most optimistic he has in months. He had just spent nearly an hour across the table from U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, and his message was direct: “We are getting closer on many things — moving forward, narrowing positions, resolving issues. Every day we are closer to having new agreements,” Ebrard told reporters from Milwaukee.

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Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has recently promoted an expansive LNG pipeline deal to center the domestic infrastructure development around the concept of “Buy Canadian.”  However, when questioned about the actual construction of the proposal, Carney now admits the developers will determine what resources will be used – and it will not be Canadian product.

The unfortunate reason is not complicated.  Canada does not have the industrial capacity to make the heavy components for the LNG expansion pipeline because Canada does not have the ability.

[SOURCE]

CALGARY — LNG Canada is planning to use Chinese steel in major components of its $33-billion second-phase expansion despite Ottawa’s promises that nationally significant projects would help drive Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Buy Canadian policy.

The joint venture says Canada lacks the specialized fabrication facilities needed to manufacture the massive modules required for its expansion and plans to buy more components from state-owned China Offshore Oil Engineering Co. Ltd. (COOEC), which manufactured modules for the project’s first phase. (read more)

I would remind readers this inability to manufacture industrial goods is exactly what former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau outlined to President Trump in December 2025 in Mar-a-Lago, when President Trump challenged Trudeau to stop importing Chinese steel and aluminum.  Canada’s clean energy policy blocks the country from creating heavy industrial components.  WATCH:

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When asked about a statement this week where Stelco Holdings Inc. announced they were laying off 500 workers from their steel plant in Hamilton, Ontario, immediately Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney blamed the United States.

He’s lying. It’s ridiculous. However, that’s all Carney can do at this point.

In reality it is (1) Canadian energy, climate and manufacturing policy; in combination with (2) the specific decision to allow the import of cheap steel from China; in combination with the decision to (3) rebuke U.S requests to stop purchasing that Chinese steel; that has driven out Canadian steel manufacturing.

(1) Canada carbon emission policy changes steel manufacturing. (2) Canada admits to lying about the import of Chinese Steel. (3) Canadian steel manufacturers warn Canada of pending exit. Mark Carney denied all three points. The receipts are in the links right there.

WATCH Prime Minister Carney blatantly lie on camera:

This announcement by Stelco happened on the exact same day that President Trump announced a new $18billion investment in U.S. steel manufacturing in Iowa. {SOURCE}

In fact, in a world full of irony, during a media segment discussing the closure of the Canadian steel plant, CBC cut away to live feed of President Trump who was making the Iowa steel plant announcement.  The timing was rather remarkable.

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The state visit by Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping in combination with USTR Jamieson Greer’s responsibilities within the U.S-China trade program, meant that Greer had to defer a visit to Mexico to work on the USMCA replacement.  However, bilateral trade agreement discussions at a technical level remained on track and progressing during Xi’s visit.

The U.S. and Mexico delegations have now expanded the bilateral topics from 54 sections to 90 sections.  This indicates significant agreement on the major components of the framework and now the smaller overlapping topics that enmesh with the bigger topics are brought in.

Greer shifted focus toward the Chinese trade aspects due to the timing of the Xi-Trump summit.  USTR Jamieson Greer is expected to be returning to the Mexico trade talks in about a week.

For the interests of the Mexican side, the main focus is seeking favorable reductions in the section 232 tariffs on steel, aluminum and automobiles.  However, the digital platform section and intellectual property is also a priority being negotiated by team USA.

MEXICO CITY, Sept 23 (Reuters) – The fourth round of trade talks between Mexico and the United States will not take place next week and could instead be held in October, a senior Mexican official said on Wednesday, as the two countries juggle a shifting diplomatic calendar.

Luis Rosendo Gutierrez, Mexico’s deputy economy minister for foreign trade, said the delay was due to scheduling conflicts, including Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to the United States and the upcoming G20 summit. Despite the pause in formal rounds, Gutierrez said technical coordination with the US Trade Representative’s Office (USTR) remains a “daily” occurrence.

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Promethean Action’s Susan Kokinda gives a good recap of Chinese Chairman Xi’s state visit, including the nuanced respect and policy alignment visible between President Trump and Chairman Xi.

In essence, the comments by Marco Rubio about putting USA sovereign policy ahead of prior USA multilateral global policy, are a baseline for Chairman Xi to pivot his own interpretations of Trump’s policy objective.  With U.S policy focused on America’s interests and Beijing policy focused on China’s interests, there is no room for conflict, only terms.

This episode argues that media outrage over a White House “autopen” joke and criticism of Trump’s summit with Xi Jinping obscures a deeper shift: Trump is dismantling a 50-year geopolitical framework associated with Henry Kissinger. It contrasts Chatham House’s “China Rising, America in Decline?” panel and its Thucydides Trap framing—linked to Graham Allison—with Xi’s evolution from posing the trap as an open question to asserting it “can be overcome” after Trump’s UN speech and claimed actions in Iran, Venezuela, the Shield of America, and the Greenland Treaty, alongside a push for reindustrialization.

The script also highlights a UN Board of Peace session on Gaza focused on reconstruction led by Gazans and a new security structure involving Muslim-country troops, presenting it as ending “outside forces” control. It notes Rubio’s permanent dual role as Secretary of State and National Security Advisor and frames his stance as reversing Kissinger’s legacy.  WATCH:

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Terms of Greenland Deal Here

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