Trump won’t – President Donald Trump has decided not to renew the USMCA trade pact with Canada and Mexico, with the United States formally notifying Canada and Mexico ahead of a July 1 deadline. The pact will continue while the three countries enter a decade-long annual rev
The clock ran out on a promise Trump made in his first term: the president is not renewing the USMCA trade pact he once called a “colossal victory” for American workers.
Ahead of a July 1 deadline. United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer informed leaders of Canada and Mexico that the United States will not extend the USMCA for an additional 16-year term. The move, widely expected, does not end the agreement immediately. Instead. it triggers a decade-long annual review process in which the three countries will negotiate on the treaty until the USMCA officially expires in 2036.
Trump’s decision also lands in the middle of a trade environment he has actively remade with tariffs—pushing the administration to argue that USMCA’s original commercial goals have been overtaken by changes at the border.
When Trump and leaders of Canada and Mexico signed the USMCA in 2020. it created a free trade zone for North America’s three largest countries. Under the pact, certain goods would face no tariffs and fewer government barriers. The agreement also extended to intellectual property in the countries and digital trade. Roughly 38% of U.S. imports from Canada fall under the USMCA, and about 50% of imports from Mexico.
Yet senior Trump administration officials—who briefed reporters on the move on the condition of anonymity—said many components of the USMCA deal have been “superseded” by the tariffs Trump imposed on goods from Mexico and Canada over the past year as part of a push to boost U.S. manufacturing.
Those tariffs include 25% on imported automobiles from Mexico and Canada, 50% on steel and aluminum imports, and 10% on lumber. The administration framed these as the real driver behind shifting trade patterns. even as some of Trump’s trade moves have met legal limits. The tariffs referenced by officials are not among those blocked by a Supreme Court decision in February that struck down Trump’s use of presidential emergency powers to impose reciprocal tariffs on countries.
Trump’s public case for USMCA once leaned heavily on exports, balance, and jobs. At a Rose Garden signing ceremony in 2020. he said. “The USMCA is the largest. fairest. most balanced. and modern trade agreement ever achieved. There’s never been anything like it.” He later called it “the best agreement we’ve ever made.”.
But administration officials said the pact did not deliver the outcome Trump had intended—specifically. that it would not reduce the U.S. trade deficit in a way that would increase the share of goods the United States exports relative to imports. Instead, officials credited Trump’s steep tariffs on imports for dropping the trade deficit by about 26% in the past year.
Officials also said the USMCA did not open the expected market opportunities for the United States in Canada and Mexico in dairy and other sectors.
The trade pressure is showing up in negotiations too. During two rounds of USMCA talks with Mexico, the United States demanded that North America-built vehicles contain 50% U.S. content, a proposal officials said would push the regional total to 82%.
Greer and other Trump officials are set to hold a third round of USMCA discussions with Mexico on July 20 as part of a joint review between the parties.
The political signals around renewal are mixed. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has expressed support for extending the USMCA, while Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney—whose country has faced heightened trade tensions with America—has suggested he won’t renew an agreement without updates.
For Trump. the decision not to renew USMCA sets up a long negotiation runway while his tariff strategy continues to steer the economic terms of trade. The annual review process that begins now runs through the pact’s scheduled end in 2036. meaning the practical outcome for businesses and consumers in both countries—and the United States—will be shaped less by a fixed agreement and more by what happens each year next.
USMCA Trump Jamieson Greer Canada Mexico tariffs trade deficit steel and aluminum automobile tariffs lumber tariffs digital trade intellectual property Supreme Court February decision July 20 talks