Trump 'Not Looking To Renew' The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement He Came Up With

Good morning, Knicks Nation! It's Thursday, June 11, 2026, and this is The Morning Shift, your daily roundup of the top automotive headlines from around the world, in one place. This is where you'll find the most important stories that are shaping the way Americans drive and get around.

In this morning's edition, President Trump says he's not going to renew the USMCA, striking United Auto Workers union members have reached a deal at a GM axle supplier, a top Ford aluminum supplier will finally restart following a massive fire last year and the Blue Oval has issued yet another recall for over half a million vehicles.

Are you tired of trade and tariff talk? Well, too bad, because President Trump apparently loves messing with it. He's now saying he won't reauthorize the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, a trade deal between the three countries, and that action is going to set the stage for months (or even years) of negotiations over vehicle tariffs and other key industries. Of course, Trump's first administration was the one that originally came up with the USMCA back in 2018, replacing its long-standing NAFTA arrangement. What a time to be alive!

The three counties are facing a July 1 milestone to extend the pact as it currently stands for another 16 years. That wasn't expected to happen, but Trump has escalated tensions with our neighbors to the north and south horrendously since returning to office. Without an extension, the deal will enter rolling annual reviews but remain in force for up to a decade... unless one country exits entirely.

Trump hasn't said if he's planning on taking that action just yet. Technically, any country can as long as they give six months' notice. From Bloomberg:

"I'm not looking to renew it," Trump told reporters Wednesday at the White House. "Because to be honest with you, the United States does much better. We don't need anything that Canada has, we don't need anything that Mexico has, but they need everything that we have, and they have to treat us better."

The Mexican and Canadian governments did not immediately reply to a request for comment. The next round of US-Mexico talks is set for this month, followed by a third in July. The US and Canada have not yet launched formal negotiations.

Mexico and Canada are two of the largest US trading partners, doing nearly $2 trillion in annual trade with each other. Goods that are compliant with the agreement have largely been exempt from Trump's barrage of tariffs, helping keep prices lower for US consumers.

[...]

Trump has been pressing to change the pact and reshore key industries such as auto manufacturing, but the scope of his ambitions is not clear. The Office of the US Trade Representative has consistently declined to specify whether the US is willing to reopen the text of the agreement, which would almost surely require a vote in Congress.

Instead, talks have focused on bilateral side-deals that are poised to center on whether the countries can strike agreements where Canada and Mexico offer concessions in exchange for tariff relief, particularly over Trump's so-called Section 232 tariffs on automobiles and steel.

Mexico has argued that the current tariff regime leaves its auto sector at a disadvantage compared to countries such as Japan and Korea, which struck top-line trade pacts with the US to slash their auto tariffs to 15%.

Right now, Mexican and Canadian auto exports to the U.S. face a 25% tariff on the non-U.S. portions of the vehicle. Auto parts exports aren't facing the same sort of levy, but the government has reportedly threatened to apply a similar one.

Apparently, Trump has discussed privately whether or not the U.S. should exit the pact, but he has yet to publicly threaten to do so in his second term in office. Back in his first term (which is when the above picture was taken — can you believe how old he's gotten?), he regularly made such threats during negotiations.

United Auto Worker union representatives have reached a deal with Dauch Corp. management that's expected to end the strike at the American Axle plant in Three Rivers, Michigan. If the strike went on much longer, there was a serious chance that production of the Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra could be impacted.

After hours of negotiation on June 10, a deal was struck that achieved the union's demand for a wage increase to $30 per hour by 2030 for production workers, among a number of other concessions. The strike of 1,000 union members first started at midnight on June 1. From Automotive News:

"These workers are finally winning back a big chunk of what was taken from them," UAW President Shawn Fain said during a Wednesday night livestream.

[...]

The deal will boost wages by 36% over the course of four years, said Josh Jager, bargaining chair for Local 2093. Additionally, the deal includes:

• No healthcare premium cost increases over the life of the contract
• New paid holidays for Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Veterans Day
• More time off for Christmas
• A $2,000 ratification bonus
• An additional nine vacation days for those with at least one year of seniority

Dauch spokesman Chris Son said the company is "pleased" to have reached the tentative deal for a four-year contract.

UAW officials said Dauch had been stockpiling axles since the start of 2026 just in case a strike were to happen, and it seems like that was a good idea, because it ended up having about a two-week buffer before the strike would have hit vehicle production. Oh, it also brought in 250 scabs to work 12-hour days during the stoppage as well. I hope those folks are happy with themselves.

Novelis' aluminum-rolling plant in upstate New York is finally restarting production nine months after a fire caused a massive supply chain crunch for the industry — and especially Ford. The Oswego plant is the largest domestic supplier of aluminum sheet for the U.S. automotive industry, and it serves dozens of companies, including Ford, General Motors and Stellantis.

The company says it expects the plant to operate at less than full capacity in the coming weeks as it ramps back up. From The Wall Street Journal:

A fire at the plant in September idled the rolling line where aluminum sheet is produced. Another fire in November caused additional damage to the rolling equipment and plant building. The thin aluminum sheets produced at the plant are later stamped into fenders, hoods and other exterior vehicle parts.

The outage was particularly disruptive for Ford, which uses aluminum for the body of the F-150 pickup truck, America's bestselling vehicle for decades.

The subsequent shortage of aluminum reduced Ford's inventories of trucks at its dealers going into summer, typically a busy time for new auto sales.

[...]

"While this is positive progress, the disruption is a clear reminder of the distress facing many automotive suppliers today," a Ford spokesman said. "Ford is committed to finding new and enhanced ways to work with our partners to prioritize long-term supply chain resilience."

[...]

Novelis said it mobilized its plants in Europe and South Korea to supply U.S. customers during the outage in New York. But the contingencies cost automakers billions of dollars.

Of course, importing aluminum from other countries costs a lot more than producing here in the U.S., thanks, in no small part, to the Trump Administration's 50% tariff on imported aluminum and the war in Iran.

Love you, Ford. The company is recalling a whopping 548,463 2018-2024 Expedition full-size SUVs because of an issue with — if you can believe it — the center console, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. From Reuters:

The ⁠issue relates to the console's ​chrome plating, which may bubble ​and peel over time, potentially resulting in sharp edges. Passengers who come ​in contact with these ​edges face an increased risk of injury, ‌the ⁠regulator said.

The recall [...] may have been caused by the center ​console chrome ​trim that ⁠was manufactured by a supplier using parameters that did not meet ​Ford specifications, the NHTSA said.

As a ​remedy, ⁠the dealers will inspect and replace the center consoles as ⁠necessary, ​free of charge, ​per the regulator.

This represents Ford's 41st recall of 2026, and those recalls have impacted a total of 10,805,185 Ford and Lincoln vehicles, according to NHTSA data. While I don't think Ford will break the record 153 recalls it issued in 2025, it should easily surpass the 12,930,719 vehicles that were impacted. This is some very impressive stuff.

History.com

There's little doubt that "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" is a cornerstone of American pop culture, but I can't stand it. Ever since I was a little kid, I was freaked out by that little ghoul, and I sort of still am today. Now, with Victor Wembanyama taking over the NBA and being mean to our New York Knicks, I'm even less of a fan of extra-terrestrials. Good riddance.

As we come toward the end of the week, we continue to get good news when it comes to gas prices. Sure, things are getting really bad once again, as the U.S. and Iran trade strikes — rendering the ceasefire pretty much irrelevant. However, this latest round of fighting hasn't impacted fuel prices just yet, and they've continued to fall Stateside. WTI Crude Oil futures and Brent Crude prices are also holding steady at their slightly lower prices, currently sitting at $89 and $92, respectively, at the time of publication.

Here's where national average prices stand right now, according to AAA:

AAA

This all shakes out to the average price of a gallon of regular gas dropping another 2 cents overnight to 4.13, according to AAA. Gas prices are now down 43 cents from the 2026 record that was set back on May 21, when gas hit $4.56 per gallon.

My Mayor Muslim.

My Bagel Jewish.

My Saturday Night Live.

My Knicks In Five.