While the announcement is almost certainly bluster to bring attention to illegal immigration and fentanyl smuggling, there are several reasons why it is so risky.

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.