President Donald Trump is suspicious of continuing a free-trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, according to a person who was a top trade official during the president's first term.
There is a directive from President Donald Trump to quickly land deals in steel, aluminum and energy, according to Canadian Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc, who spoke to Canadian reporters in the late afternoon Oct. 7, after a White House visit accompanying Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Mexican media reported that President Claudia Sheinbaum said in her daily press conference that Mexico will try to get an exemption from the announced 25% tariff on medium- and heavy-duty trucks.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said that while the administration doesn't expect to lose its tariff case at the Supreme Court, "wherever we end up," the approach will be similar to what it is now.
A new report from Rethink Trade, an anti-corporate trade nonprofit, says that while the USMCA's Rapid Response mechanism has helped tens of thousands of workers in Mexico, unions and Rethink Trade will push for changes to the mechanism in the USMCA review.
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., and Sen. Dave McCormick, R-Pa., introduced a bill last week to direct the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to prioritize convincing Canada and Mexico to institute a foreign investment review board similar to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, at the Council on Foreign Relations, emphasized that Canada is aware that its proximity to the U.S. is no longer so enviable, since U.S. economic strategy "has clearly changed, from the support for the multilateral system to a more transactional and managed bilateral trade and investment approach."
The Commerce Department published notices in the Federal Register Sept. 18 on the following antidumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) proceedings (any notices that announce changes to AD/CVD rates, scope, affected firms or effective dates will be detailed in another ITT article):
As the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee winds down in its current iteration, both trade and government officials expressed hope for continuing their collaboration as CBP shifts the committee's focus more toward trade enforcement, according to comments made during the COAC's quarterly meeting on Sept. 17.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is seeking views on how the USMCA is working, as the three participating countries begin a joint review of the pact in July 2026.