The USMCA Review Has Started: Learn the Latest

The 2020 United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) includes a built-in, mandatory, six-year review. Most Democrats in Congress and hundreds of unions and civil society groups seek a major renegotiation. Contrary to President Trump’s promises that USMCA would fix the North American Free Trade Agreement’s (NAFTA) damage, Mexican workers are still paid less than workers in China, corporations are still offshoring U.S. jobs to Mexico, the U.S. trade deficit with Canada and Mexico has grown massively since the USMCA was enacted, and the number of American manufacturing jobs is down. Rethink Trade prepared the only comprehensive study documenting the pacts outcomes, which are the opposite of Trump’s promises.

The agreement set a July 1, 2026, deadline for the United States, Mexico, and Canada to affirmatively agree to extend the USMCA for 16 years as-is or approve a revised agreement or a ten-year annual-review sunset countdown begins with the agreement ending July 1, 2036. Renegotiations started in 2025 and will continue past July 2026.

• On September 16, 2025, the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) opened a public comment period on the Joint Review of the USMCA.
• On December 16 and 17, 2025, USTR reported to the House Ways and Means Committee and Senate Finance Committee on the administration’s priorities for review.

Learn more about the required six-year review here.

The USMCA is a revision of NAFTA. This NAFTA 2.0 was negotiated during the first Trump administration and came into force in 2020. The renegotiation made major improvements to NAFTA, adding enforceable labor standards, and eliminating some special corporate powers, like investor-state dispute settlement between the United States and Canada. But the deal also added to NAFTA “digital trade” rules that empower Big Tech corporations to undermine our online privacy, safety, right to repair, and civil rights.

Rethink Trade provides analysis on these issues and advocates for improvements. Learn more below.