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US President Donald Trump says the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) is not relevant to the US, but that Canada wants it, as he pushed for companies to bring manufacturing back home.

“There’s no real advantage to it; it’s irrelevant,” Trump said about the trade agreement on Tuesday, during a visit to Detroit, Michigan.

“Canada would love it. Canada wants it. They need it.”

Detroit’s three big automakers, Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, are heavily reliant on supply chains that include significant parts production in Mexico and Canada, and all three produce hundreds of thousands of vehicles annually in both countries.

Major car makers, including Tesla, Toyota and Ford, in November also urged the Trump administration to extend USMCA, saying it is crucial to US auto production.

The American Automotive Policy Council, representing the Detroit Three automakers, said the USMCA “enables automakers operating in the US to compete globally through regional integration, which delivers efficiency gains” and accounts “for tens of billions of dollars in annual savings”.

Mark Reuss, president of General Motors, said at an event on Tuesday, “Our supply chains go all the way through all three countries. It’s not simple. It’s very complex. The whole North American piece of that is a big strength.”

Trump made his comments as he toured a Ford factory in Dearborn, Michigan, ahead of a speech he is delivering on the economy in Detroit on Tuesday.

“The problem is, we don’t need their product. 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,” he said.

Stellantis said in November that under the 15 percent tariffs with Japan, US vehicles complying with North American content rules “will continue to lose market share to Asian imports, to the detriment of American automotive workers”.

The USMCA is up for review this year on whether it should be left to expire or another deal should be worked out.

The trade pact, which replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement in 2020 and was negotiated during Trump’s first term as president, requires the three countries to hold a joint review after six years.

Former United States President Bill Clinton and former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have refused a congressional subpoena to testify before a House of Representatives committee as part of an investigation into multi-millionaire financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

In a letter on Tuesday, the Clintons accused Republican Representative James Comer of playing political favourites in the investigation, seeking to punish political opponents like them, while shielding allies, including US President Donald Trump.

The Clintons called the subpoena “legally invalid”, adding the investigation by a committee chaired by Comer was “literally designed to result in our imprisonment”.

“We will forcefully defend ourselves,” wrote the couple.

In response, Comer said he will begin contempt of US Congress proceedings against the Clintons, who are Democrats, next week.

The lengthy process would eventually require approval from a full vote of the House. If that were to pass, the Clintons could be prosecuted by the Department of Justice.

“No one’s accusing the Clintons of any wrongdoing,” Comer told reporters on Tuesday. “We just have questions.”

In their letter, the Clintons contended they had already provided all the relevant information they had to the committee, leading them to conclude the subpoena to appear in person was only meant to “harrass and embarrass”.

“We have tried to give you the little information we have. We’ve done so because Mr Epstein’s crimes were horrific,” the Clintons wrote.

Epstein committed suicide in 2019 as he awaited trial on sex trafficking and conspiracy charges, but speculation has continued to grow over the influential people in the multi-millionaire’s social orbit.

Both Bill Clinton and Trump had documented friendships with Epstein, but have denied knowledge that he trafficked underage girls.

Last year, Congress passed a law requiring the Department of Justice to release all the files related to its investigation into Epstein, but the agency has to date only released a small fraction.

Critics have accused the department of prioritising the release of documents related to Clinton to draw attention away from Trump.

In a letter last week, two lawmakers, Democrat Ro Khanna and Republican Thomas Massie, requested that a federal judge appoint a neutral expert to oversee the release of the files.