Crain’s Detroit Business
March 17, 2025
Kurt Nagl
The Trump administration’s tariffs on Canada and Mexico are not only straining the U.S. relationship with its most important trading partners, they are also undermining its credibility ahead of planned United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) negotiations, said Colin Bird, consul general of Canada in Detroit.
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The Canadian consul spoke with U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin and Detroit Regional Chamber Chief Executive Officer Sandy K. Baruah about the importance of the U.S.-Canada relationship, rooted in more than a century of friendly relations and free trade.
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Baruah agreed and added that the business community might be more sympathetic if the end game was clear.
“What we’re hearing is the initial excitement about the new administration was genuine,” Baruah said. “Now what we’re hearing is it’s beginning to look a lot like COVID in the sense that business leaders are really struggling with a level of uncertainty they were not expecting.”