No, USA is wanting more trading concessions from Canada, México, China.
Is that what Trump is wanting? He doesn't seem to be tying it in with concessions, possibly because it might open questions about the NAFTA agreement that his previous administration negotiated and he hailed as a bigly success.
Frankly, it is unclear what Trump and his administration is aiming for. I am sure there are the usual people saying he is playing 4-d chess, but I am not entirely convinced he could play 3-d chess.
His speeches before election stuck me that he was talking about implementing some kind of import substitution strategy. Which would be a first in modern times for a developed nation and quite probably incredibly dumb. South American countries and India were notable in implementing this strategy post WWII and the results were somewhat mixed in economies that were developing. India had reason for the strategy - key industries had been stagnant or dismantled during colonial rule and they wanted to rebuild them. Countries implementing the strategy starting moving away from them in the 80s and 90s for good reasons. How it would work in a highly developed consumer led economy is completely unknown.
He is playing the strategy of picking off smaller more dependent countries. It is telling that Canada and Mexico have been hit hardest with surprisingly light extra tariffs on China considering the pre-election rhetoric. There are reasons for this. Canada and Mexico tariffs will have an inflationary effect on the US, but not as much as China tariffs and the first two are far more likely to provide concessions. I hope this is being watched with care in the EU - Trump strategy is divide and conquer and the US will find pressing large trading blocks more problematic than individual countries.
With Poilevre's statements about the tariffs it appears Canada is planning to try to weather the storm. In any event, I imagine there will be concerted efforts to invest in decoupling the economy where it makes sense - for example refining oil/gas in Canada rather than raw export for US to do the refining and export. This reminds me a little of the Brexit rhetoric. One side makes moves which economically make little sense in the assumption the other side will act economically rationally when in fact the other side might also have political and social reasons to also act against their pure economic interest.
