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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President Trump visited U.S. troops stationed in Japan and gave a speech aboard the USS George Washington.  President Trump was accompanied by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and during a segment of the speech Trump invited Takaichi to deliver remarks.  This is certainly very cool.  WATCH: 

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The full video of President Trump’s remarks to the troops is below:

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U.S. President Donald Trump received a grand welcome from Japan’s first female Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, in Tokyo before the two leaders held a bilateral meeting focused on trade, defense and regional stability.

Video segments below, as presented, starting with the formal welcome ceremony.

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At the grand Akasaka Palace, President Donald Trump met Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi for a historic U.S.–Japan summit. The leaders celebrated shared achievements, discussed new trade and defense commitments, and promised a stronger alliance for peace and prosperity.

President Trump delivered very touching remarks about former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Mrs Takaichi’s friend and mentor in politics.

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Tremendous warmth surrounds President Donald J Trump participating in a bilateral meeting with new Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi at Akasaka Palace in Minato, Japan.

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There are going to be three MAGA groups:  ♦Group one, team Rubio.  ♦Group two, team Vance – Musk/Thiel.  ♦Group three (alligator emojis) team DeSantis – Ellison/Murdoch.   It looks like Trump wants team one and team two to work together, avoiding team three.

Watch Rubio in video.

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Keep watching.

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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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Aboard Airforce One on route to Tokyo, Japan, President Trump, Secretary Rubio, Secretary Bessent and USTR Greer held a press conference and debriefing with the traveling press pool.  The main focus of their comments were trade and economics.

If you are interested in trade discussions, this video and presser is for you.  Video Below:

Malaysia hosted the ASEAN conference attended by President Trump and positioned themselves very favorably for warm ongoing relations with the United States.

As President Trump thanked the various dignitaries for their warm hospitality, he invited them to the USA and delivered personal messages of great appreciation.  The departure ceremony is below.  WATCH:

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Next stop, Tokyo, Japan.

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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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