The 2026 review of the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) arrives at a time when global trade is increasingly shaped by geopolitical rivalry, unilateralism, and the growing premise that economic security is national security. In this environment, the answer is not to retreat from USMCA but to build a stronger, more resilient North America that is open, efficient, predictable, and aligned to confront unfair trading practices from outside the region. 

Some use the term “Fortress North America” for a continent that is founded and fortified through decades of free trade. A fortress does not suggest building walls between the United States, Mexico, and Canada, but rather greater more regional coordination to strengthen our integrated market and supply chains so our three countries can respond together to external distortions and threats.

USMCA has already demonstrated that the trilateral model can deliver. A major achievement of the first Trump Administration, the agreement anchors one of the most integrated economic regions in the world, particularly in sectors like agriculture, energy, aerospace, and automotive, where parts and services, data, and goods cross borders multiple times during production. For US companies, trilateral integration optimizes efficiencies, streamlines operations, lowers costs, and makes them more competitive, especially vis-à-vis non-market economies. A stable and prosperous North America is instrumental to border stability and is a formidable counter to illicit trade and anticompetitive practices.

The July 1 USMCA review deadline passed without renewal, as the United States declined to extend the agreement until the parties address outstanding bilateral issues and modernize the text. That decision kickstarts a cycle of annual reviews over the next ten years, creating additional uncertainty for US companies that trade and invest across North America. The United States Council for International Business (USCIB) has argued consistently that the 2026 review should renew USMCA as a trilateral agreement through 2042, so deeply integrated supply chains can continue to prosper and compete longer term. At the same time, renewal should not be a rubber stamp. We support targeted updates and stronger enforcement that enhance US competitiveness, supply chain resilience, and North American production, including addressing unlawful transshipment, reducing reliance on non-market inputs in strategic sectors, and ensuring that the benefits of USMCA accrue more directly to production in the region.

Rules of origin are a good example. They are essential to ensuring USMCA benefits accrue more directly to producers and workers in the region. Any changes must be approached with precision in close consultation with affected US businesses to ensure they are commercially workable and administrable by customs authorities. In some narrowly defined cases, tighter origin requirements may be warranted. However, generalized tightening, especially broad movement from workable tariff-shift rules to complex regional value content formulas, risks raising compliance costs, exposing sensitive supplier data, and disrupting supply chains where North American substitutes do not yet exist at scale. A stronger USMCA should use rules of origin with precision, supported by clear guidance, reasonable implementation timelines, and technical updates to align rules with current Harmonized System nomenclature.

The same principle should guide the treatment of Section 232 tariffs and other national security measures. North America cannot function as an integrated production platform if qualifying USMCA goods are repeatedly exposed to tariffs intended to address threats from outside the region. Goods that meet USMCA rules of origin should receive predictable duty-free treatment. Where national security reviews are undertaken, governments should consult closely with business, assess regional supply chain impacts, and coordinate approaches with Canada and Mexico where the risk comes from non-market economy practices outside the region.

Enforcement and compliance also should be improved. The three governments should expand customs cooperation, origin verification, import monitoring, and targeted anti-circumvention tools to address fraudulent preference claims and illicit transshipment. USMCA renewal should ensure compliance of commitments already made, particularly in the areas of agriculture, biotechnology, telecommunications, energy, customs administration, technical barriers to trade, electronic payments, and procurement. To support this goal, parties should improve the agreement’s consultative mechanisms so that business has a structured voice, outcomes are transparent, and non-conforming measures are corrected in practice, not merely identified on paper. 

A forward-looking USMCA should also create new channels for regional collaboration, with critical minerals at the center. The United States, Canada, and Mexico possess abundant reserves of copper, lithium, and nickel — all critical minerals essential to advanced manufacturing and energy security. USMCA parties should develop a mechanism for better coordination of trade, subsidy, and investment policies in this critical sector to reduce dependence on unreliable foreign sources.

The same logic applies to subsidies and overcapacity. North America needs a trilateral mechanism to monitor and respond to overcapacity, helping maintain a level playing field and avoid retaliatory tariffs that undermine regional trust. And as each country develops its own AI governance framework, North America should avoid digital fragmentation and instead pursue interoperable, risk-based approaches that enable trusted AI systems, services, and products to scale across the region.

We need a USMCA that protects what works: open regional trade, trusted investment, efficient supply chains, high standards, innovation, and shared economic security. If done right, the 2026 review can achieve this goal, strengthening US competitiveness, preserving the integrity of the integrated North American market, and showing that the best counter to non-market economy practices is deeper cooperation among partners that build, innovate, and compete together. USCIB is steadfast in championing this outcome. 

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Whitney Baird is President and CEO of the United States Council for International Business (USCIB), a business association comprised of US-based companies and professional services firms from every sector of the economy, with operations in every region of the world. As the US affiliate of leading international business organizations including Business at OECD (BIAC), The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), and The International Organisation of Employers (IOE), USCIB advances the US business perspective to policymakers and regulatory authorities worldwide and works to facilitate commerce and build trust in multilateral systems.