This article originally appeared in National Review. An excerpt of the article appears below.
By Jamie Tronnes & Emily Kilcrease, June 12, 2026
As Canada, the United States, and Mexico begin the USMCA review period on July 1, the future of North American trade has never been so grim. The Trump administration’s announcement of new tariffs last week, including on Canada and Mexico, represents yet another risk facing the integrated North American market as the United States abandons rules-based trade.
The stakes of the review of the United States-Mexico-Canada agreement are high.
Canada and Mexico are America’s largest trading partners, and the integrated North American market forms a formidable economic bloc to compete with Chinese manufacturing. The first Trump administration rightly hailed USMCA as the “gold standard” of trade agreements, since it provided a predictable set of rules to encourage trade and investment across North America, while also tackling long-standing concerns, such as labor violations in Mexico.
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Emily Kilcrease is a senior fellow and director of the Energy, Economics, and Security Program at the Center for a New American Security.
Jamie Tronnes is the executive director of the Center for North American Prosperity and Security
