President Donald Trump stated that he does not care about updating the North American trade agreement, also known as the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). This statement was made during a phone call to Fox News Channel’s ‘Fox and Friends’ program. Trump believes that the six-year-old trade pact is more important to Mexico and Canada than to the United States.

Canada Seeks More Talks

Despite Trump’s comments, Canada has announced plans to send senior trade officials to Washington for more talks this week. Dominic LeBlanc, the Canadian minister in charge of U.S. trade, will travel to Washington for meetings, marking the first in-person meetings since Trump’s administration announced additional tariffs on Canadian goods.

The United States has imposed a 25% tariff on Mexican- and Canadian-built cars and trucks, as well as a 50% tariff on their steel and aluminum products, citing national security grounds. These tariffs have put Mexico and Canada at a trade disadvantage compared to other countries like South Korea, Japan, and the European Union.

Trump’s decision not to renew USMCA has set in motion a decade-long wind-down of the trade pact unless the three countries can agree on revisions before then. The president’s trade chief, Jamieson Greer, held a third round of talks with Mexico last week aimed at updating USMCA, but the discussions revealed deep differences over how to tighten regional automotive content rules.

Unions Urge Tariff Reconsideration

Two major industrial unions, the United Steelworkers and the International Association of Machinists, have urged Trump’s trade chief to reconsider tariffs on Canadian goods. The unions represent workers in both the U.S. and Canada and believe that a more cooperative trade relationship between the two countries would allow them to jointly confront China’s unfair trade practices.

Original reporting: Appleton, WI News Feed (HLL/CB) — read the source article.