TRENTON, Canada

Mexico should be removed from a North American free-trade deal because it is a “back door” for Chinese goods, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Tuesday.

That undercuts North American automakers in Canada and the US, said the premier of Canada's most populated province.

The so-called CUSMA, or Canada-Mexico-US trade deal, is up for review in 2026 and since the agreement took effect in 2020, Mexico has become a “back door for Chinese cars, auto parts and other products into Canadian and American markets,” Ford said in a statement Tuesday.

“If Mexico won’t fight transshipment by, at the very least, matching Canadian and American tariffs on Chinese imports, they shouldn’t have a seat at the table or enjoy access to the largest economy in the world,” he said. “Instead, we must prioritize the closest economic partnership on Earth by directly negotiating a bilateral U.S.-Canada free trade agreement that puts U.S. and Canadian workers first.”

There is a lot at stake. The agreement covers a market of about 500 million people and represents nearly 30% of the global economy, according to Global Affairs Canada. The

The US Trade Representative website said the value of the deal is about US$1.8 trillion annually.

Campaigning during the US presidential election, Donald Trump complained that Mexico was undercutting automakers in Canada and the US by importing cheaper car parts from Mexico to go into North American vehicles, the Globe and Mail newspaper reported.

“China’s coming in big and they think they’re going to make their cars and sell it tax-free into the United States,” Trump said in an economic policy speech in the state of Georgia in September, the Globe reported. “When they learn about the 100- or 200-percent tariff, they’ll probably say, ‘Yeah, let’s stop construction immediately.’”

The CUMSA deal was supposed to see auto manufacturing parts moved to and made in North America.

In October, Canada imposed a 100% tariff on Chinese-manufactured electrical vehicles to help correct an “unfair” trade approach, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said at the time.