USMCA News Updates

Pressure on the U.S. economy is building, and Canada can likely get the best outcome in trade negotiations by waiting, according to a former Canadian negotiator.

In early 2026, the primary parts-related issue for managers is cost containment, said Robert Braswell, TMC’s executive director.

ATA President Chris Spear outlined for TMC attendees the breakneck pace at which challenges are confronting the carriers that comprise ATA's membership base.

The U.S. is demanding changes to the treaty, and the top U.S. trade negotiator has said the president would be willing to pull the U.S. out of the pact if he can’t get the deal he wants.

The economy ministry conducted consultations with 30 sector roundtables, spanning metals, agriculture, construction, carmaking and tourism. It sent more than 500 surveys to companies, chambers and industry groups.

Dominic LeBlanc told a business audience in Toronto that he will meet with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer late next week in Washington ahead of the mandatory review of the USMCA in July.

Uncertainty over the future of the deal has intensified, with the president asking aides why he should not withdraw from the agreement, according to people familiar with those discussions.

The president has asked aides why he shouldn’t withdraw from the pact, which he signed during his first term, though he has stopped short of flatly signaling that he will do so, Bloomberg reports.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick dismissed as “political noise” the moves in recent days by Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney to strengthen trade relations with China.

“We built our entire vehicle business as an industry between Canada, Mexico and the U.S.,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said Jan. 15 in a Bloomberg TV interview. “We have to get this revised.”