Honda‘s US arm wants Washington to use the upcoming renegotiation of the North American trade pact to coordinate restrictions on Chinese vehicles and investment across the United States, Canada and Mexico, while conceding the Chinese brands cannot be kept out indefinitely.
“We’re not going to be able to keep them out forever,” Jennifer Thomas, Senior VP of Corporate Affairs at American Honda, told reporters at a roundtable on Tuesday, Axios reported.
Thomas said Americans who see Chinese cars on the road in Canada and Mexico will increasingly ask why they cannot buy them at home, according to Axios.
“The U.S. can’t do it alone,” she said, adding that the effort would require working with Canada, Mexico and allies such as Japan.
The call puts a Japanese carmaker that built its North American business on open trade in the position of lobbying to keep out another wave of foreign competitors.
Honda runs four assembly plants in the United States, two in Canada and one in Mexico, and more than 60% of the vehicles it sells in the United States are built there, according to the company. It is weighing a new hybrid plant in Ohio, Nikkei has previously reported.
Honda is a member of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which in September urged Congress to permanently ban Chinese connected vehicles, hardware and software before the current Congress adjourns.
The Trade Backdrop
Thomas spoke as the trade pact faces its biggest test since it took effect in 2020. The United States declined to renew the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement for a new 16-year term at its July 1 joint review, leaving it in force but subject to annual reviews through 2036.
President Donald Trump has threatened to double tariffs on Canadian vehicles and parts to 50% from 25% on January 1 if the two countries do not reach a deal.
“That really would be catastrophic for the entire industry,” Thomas said at a Reuters automotive conference in Detroit on Tuesday, according to CNBC. She said she was “cautiously optimistic” the increase would be avoided.
“Our message has been clear: We need that trilateral agreement to stay in place in order for the U.S. industry to be competitive,” she said.
Three Countries, Three Approaches
The three countries now treat Chinese cars very differently, which is the gap Honda wants closed.
In the United States, a Commerce Department rule finalized in January 2025 already bars connected vehicles from manufacturers owned or controlled from China, even if built in the country. Its software restrictions apply from the 2027 model year and its hardware restrictions from 2030.
A bill to write the ban into law, the Connected Vehicle Security Act, cleared the Senate Commerce Committee in July, but its sponsors delayed a fast-track Senate vote in September as Republican Senator Rand Paul held out.
Canada went the other way in January, when Prime Minister Mark Carney agreed with President Xi Jinping to replace a 100% surtax on Chinese-built electric vehicles with a quota of up to 49,000 vehicles a year at the 6.1% most-favored-nation tariff.
Imports have stalled since Tesla halted orders for its Shanghai-built Model 3 in Canada. As of October 23, 15,931 of the 49,000 permits had been used, and the second six-month window had recorded 328 vehicles, about 1% of its allocation, according to Global Affairs Canada data.
Chinese brands are preparing to enter Canada directly. Chery‘s Omoda & Jaecoo has said it will arrive in late 2026, Geelyhas set a 2027 launch and BYD says it is “coming soon.”
Mexico raised its tariff on cars from China and other countries without trade agreements to 50% from January 1, according to Mexico News Daily. Chinese brands still took 17% of new vehicle sales in the first half of 2026, selling 137,525 vehicles, up from 107,712, according to Mexican dealer association data reported by Reuters.
Investment, Not Just Imports
Honda’s call covers investment as well as imports, as Washington weighs Chinese factories on US soil.
Trump has said Chinese carmakers could build plants in the United States if they hire American workers. “Japan does it, but they hire our people,” he told Fox News in September.
The United States and China have established a Board of Investment to discuss Chinese investment, without saying whether it will take up car plants, and negotiators have discussed a shortlist of potential projects that includes electric vehicles and battery storage ahead of a meeting between the two presidents in Shenzhen in November, the South China Morning Post reported.
Six industry groups representing carmakers including GM, Toyota and Ford wrote to Trump on September 17 that Chinese factories in the United States “would still rely on Chinese suppliers and Chinese components.”
Rivals Sound Similar Warnings
Honda’s comments echo other carmakers. Ford Chief Executive Officer Jim Farley said in September that Europe had let Chinese brands in too quickly and that “it’s too late” there, urging the United States to “be extremely careful” about how they enter.
Kia Canada’s Chief Operating Officer, Elias El-Achhab, played down the threat in October, saying the Chinese brands’ arrival in Canada comes with “a lot of hype.”
Thomas’s prediction that US drivers will notice Chinese cars across the border goes to the heart of the issue. Canada sold more than 1.9 million vehicles over the past 12 months and Mexico about 1.6 million, according to BMO Capital Markets, giving Chinese brands two large markets on the US doorstep.
