OTTAWA–North America's traditional automotive industry will effectively disappear within a decade if Ottawa doesn't put trade restrictions on imported vehicles, CAW president Buzz Hargrove says.

Hargrove delivered that stark message at a meeting yesterday with Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Hargrove urged the federal government to bring in a reciprocal trade arrangement.

"I said to the Prime Minister that it wouldn't surprise me (that), within a decade, General Motors and Ford both would declare bankruptcy in North America," he told reporters after the meeting.

A spokesperson for the Prime Minister said Harper "appreciates the challenges" facing the auto industry.

Meanwhile, Martinrea International Inc. announced plans this week to close its major automotive-parts plant in Kitchener, formerly known as Budd Automotive, by the spring of 2010, with 1,200 jobs lost.

"We raised our concern about the lack of response by our government as we've gone from one of the most successful auto-producing nations in the world, and now we've moved down the ladder to No. 9, and almost daily we get another announcement of a closure," Hargrove said.

The long-time president of the Canadian Auto Workers said he explained to Harper that a combination of trade restrictions similar to the old North American Auto Pact and an automotive investment fund would go a long way toward breathing life into the moribund industry.

"We told him that, if he doesn't deal with the trade issue, then there is absolutely no way our industry can survive and ... that we should look at an auto pact type arrangement with Asia," Hargrove said.

"The auto pact, which was signed with the U.S. in 1965, recognized that we were not getting our fair share of production and jobs in Canada from the American producers, and now we have a similar problem with Japan and South Korea. Any agreement would have to ensure that trade is reciprocal: whatever they sell to us in dollar terms, they would have buy from us."

Hargrove said these foreign auto manufacturers flood North America with their vehicles – from offshore and from plants in Canada and the United States – and then buy virtually nothing in return.

Hargrove made a pitch to Harper to commit $30 million to reopen the Ford Essex Engine Plant in Windsor, a city that has been devastated by plant closings.

"We told him you can't delay those things ... and that on every opportunity that arises to say, `The federal government will partner with you under certain conditions.'"