The United States Trade Representative (USTR) , Jamieson Greer, expressed his support for the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) , despite the fact that the President of the United States, Donald Trump, has indicated his disagreement with the trilateral trade agreement on several occasions
In closed-door briefings with the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee on December 16 and 17, Greer asserted that the trade agreement, whose review is scheduled for July 2026, will not be automatically renewed, and that Mexico must resolve a list of outstanding issues that could define the future of the USMCA .
The topics include improvements to labor legislation and the enforcement of environmental laws. Other issues to be addressed include agricultural trade, seasonal Mexican products, origin labeling, and sanitary and phytosanitary measures.
The document also highlighted the work that Canada and Mexico have done in various areas, such as those related to the economy and security.
“Both Mexico and Canada expressed interest in taking action on issues of economic security,” a statement about the meeting said.
In that regard, he detailed that last week Mexico approved tariffs on more than 1,400 products from countries with which it does not have free trade agreements.
According to senators and representatives who participated in the meetings, Greer stated that the US administration supports the trilateral trade agreement and gave no indication that the United States intends to abandon it or make bilateral agreements.
Among other points, Greer assured that the USTR will engage with Mexico and Canada to determine which “deficiencies can be addressed bilaterally and which require a trilateral resolution.”
According to the document, Greer explained that the USMCA includes a novel joint review mechanism in the sixth year of validity so that it does not get stuck “with outdated rules and to allow periodic adjustments to the agreement . ”
It is worth remembering that the trilateral trade agreement is valid for 16 years, and article 34.7 states that a review must be carried out six years after its implementation, where the three countries will evaluate its functioning to see if it continues for another 16 years.
While the sectors that participated in the public consultations held in the United States showed strong support for the USMCA, almost all of them asked for improvements, he stressed.
These statements come after Trump considered letting the USMCA expire in early December in order to seek a new trade agreement .
Should this threat materialize, Mexico’s trade with the United States would be affected, and there would be a realignment of supply chains , given a possible decrease in exports as a result of the provisions contained in the new trade agreement, since more than 80% of the country’s exports to the United States are protected by the USMCA with a zero tariff.
The accumulated figures up to September 2025 for the foreign trade of the northern neighbor confirm that Mexico remains its main partner , totaling 71 billion 774.7 million dollars (USD) in traded goods , according to the United States Department of Commerce .
Comment and follow us on X: @GrupoT21
