During President-elect Donald Trump’s first term, America launched an all-out trade war with China to boost US manufacturing, secure US national security interests and resolve what Trump believed was an extremely out-of-balance trade relationship.

The president-elect’s opening salvo in trade and border talks with the United States’ neighbors is casting a harsh light on the North American alliance.

Mexico and Canada are the United States’ top two trading partners, accounting for nearly 30% of trade volumes.