USMCA is Not Broken, Doesn’t Need Major Changes

November 11, 2025
Ed Gresser

***In 2026 USMCA Review, Congress Should Focus* *on Crises Caused by Trump Administration***

The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, successor to the North American Free Trade Agreement, has been in force for just over five years. That means a deadline of sorts is coming up. As passed by Congress in 2019, the USMCA includes a clause directing the three partner countries to “review” the agreement after six years — that is, by July 2026 — and decide whether they like it more or less as is, or want to see changes.

In principle, that’s fine. The agreement is a big human creation, with some notable innovations. As such, it has lots of features that look good to some groups but bad to others. With the “review” ahead, industry associations, pressure groups, labor unions, and agricultural commodity groups are all dutifully writing up lists of ways to improve it. But fundamentally, the agreement is working reasonably well — facilitating trade in agriculture, energy, and manufacturing, helping digital channels stay open, encouraging joint work on wildlife trafficking and ocean health, and experimenting with a novel approach to labor issues. At the same time, though, the Trump administration’s profligate tariffs and threats against Canada and Mexico are causing a series of genuine crises: usurpation of Congress’s Constitutional authority; erosion of relationships at the core of U.S. national security; and a deteriorating economic environment as tariffs raise costs for families and diminish the competitiveness of U.S. farming and manufacturing.

The “deadline,” meanwhile, is a very soft one. In fact, it requires no action at all. And in the circumstances of 2025 and 2026, the best choice is “let well enough alone.” Congress should make it clear that the USMCA does not need major changes at this point, and that policy should instead focus on ending these self-created crises. If the administration nonetheless wants to proceed, Congress should require three steps first:

Approve legislation such as Representative Linda Sanchez’s HR 2888, which would terminate the administration’s “emergency” and “national security” decrees under laws like “IEEPA,” “Section 232,” and “Section 301” and require votes on any future Presidential imposition of tariffs (or other import limits) with some carefully circumscribed exceptions.
Stabilize North American security by restoring trust, mutual respect, and common interest as the foundation of U.S. policy for America’s neighbors.
Restore Constitutionally appropriate policymaking, with Congress setting negotiating objectives for trade policy agencies and voting to approve, or not, any agreements making changes in U.S. tariff rates or trade laws.

With these done, it would be appropriate, and might be useful, to look closely at the USMCA and see whether a broad consensus exists for changes that would improve it. But not before.