Trump shrugs off USMCA as Detroit warns supply chains aren’t that simple

US President Donald Trump has dismissed the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement as largely pointless for Washington, arguing that it benefits Canada far more than the US as he renewed his push to bring manufacturing back home.

“There’s no real advantage to it; it’s irrelevant,” Trump said on Tuesday during a visit to Detroit, Michigan. “Canada would love it. Canada wants it. They need it.”

The comments landed in the heart of America’s auto industry, where reality looks far more intertwined than Trump’s rhetoric suggests. Detroit’s three biggest carmakers, Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, all rely heavily on supply chains that stretch across the US, Canada and Mexico, producing hundreds of thousands of vehicles in all three countries each year.

Industry leaders have repeatedly warned that tearing up or weakening USMCA would be costly. In November, major automakers including Tesla, Toyota and Ford urged the Trump administration to extend the agreement, calling it essential to US auto production.

The American Automotive Policy Council, which represents the Detroit Three, says USMCA allows US-based automakers to compete globally through regional integration, delivering efficiency gains and “tens of billions of dollars in annual savings”.

General Motors president Mark Reuss underlined that point on Tuesday.

“Our supply chains go all the way through all three countries,” he said. “It’s not simple. It’s very complex. The whole North American piece of that is a big strength.”

Trump made his remarks while touring a Ford factory in Dearborn ahead of an economic speech in Detroit, framing USMCA as an obstacle to reshoring jobs.

“The problem is, we don’t need their product,” he said. “You know, we don’t need cars made in Canada. We don’t need cars made in Mexico. We want to take them here. And that’s what’s happening.”

Yet even automakers broadly supportive of Trump’s protectionist instincts have warned of unintended consequences. Stellantis said in November that under existing tariff structures, US vehicles that meet North American content rules still risk losing market share to Asian imports, “to the detriment of American automotive workers”.

The USMCA, which replaced NAFTA in 2020 and was negotiated during Trump’s first term, is up for a mandatory six-year review this year. The process could determine whether the deal is extended, rewritten or allowed to expire altogether.

Markets appeared uneasy. On Wall Street, Ford shares slipped 0.25 percent, Stellantis fell 2.9 percent, and General Motors edged up 0.6 percent, reflecting uncertainty over what a post-USMCA North American auto industry might actually look like.