It’s no secret the Detroit 3 is losing market share to foreign makes, especially in North America were U.S. manufacturers have traditionally been the dominant players. Strong competition from Japanese and Korean makes have eroded the Detroit 3’s stranglehold on the U.S. market and has pushed one of the brands, Chrysler, to the brink of bankruptcy. Union bosses are fearful of the state of the U.S. carmakers, and one official, Canadian Auto Workers president Buzz Hargrove, has warned that even heavyweights GM and Ford could be forced into bankruptcy within a decade if the U.S. doesn’t block imports from Korea and Japan.

Falling market share is causing U.S. carmakers to scale back production and layoff workers as well as move investment dollars to offshore markets such as South America and China. "I'm very fearful. Every month when I look at the numbers, the market share losses just keep growing. For Ford and GM I think there's only one scenario if you don't stem the market share losses," Hargrove told reporters from The Globe and Mail.

Hargrove also pointed out that the situation is set to get worse for U.S. firms because of the eventual flood of cheap imports from India and China. The union boss is now attempting to meet with Canadian politicians to help get his point across to voters as well as the U.S. government. One of his solutions is to stop imports from Japan and Korea until those countries open their markets to North American vehicles.

American carmakers have already seen the writing on the wall and have made a conscious effort to focus on new markets such as India and China. In the end, market forces will decide the fate of the Detroit 3 and blocking imports in the meantime will only serve as a bandaid fix.