David Lauder
WASHINGTON, Jan 28 (Reuters) – U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Mexican Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard agreed on Wednesday to begin formal discussions on possible reforms to the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, Greer’s office said.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said in a statement that possible reforms in the joint review of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement include strengthening rules of origin for industrial products, strengthening cooperation on critical minerals, increasing protections for workers and producers, and efforts by the United States and Mexico to combat “relentless dumping of manufactured goods in the region.”
The U.S. Trade Representative’s office gave no details on the timing of the talks, and its statement did not say whether Canada would participate. A spokesman for the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for clarification.
Under the trilateral trade agreement that takes effect in 2020, the United States, Mexico and Canada must conduct a joint review of the trade agreement before July 1, its sixth anniversary, to confirm their intention to extend it for 16 years or make modifications, which the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office calls a “sunset provision.” Greer told lawmakers in December that USMCA’s “flaw is that rubber-stamping the agreement does not serve the national interest of the United States.” He said the agreement was not equipped to handle the surge in exports and investment in the region from non-market economies such as China.
U.S. President Donald Trump has been more outspoken, saying this month that the trilateral trade pact was “irrelevant” to the United States despite the highly integrated North American economy.
After Wednesday’s meeting, Ebrard called the discussions positive in a social media video and said the two sides discussed next steps for the USMCA and covered new U.S. tariffs, including those affecting Mexican auto exports to the U.S.
“As you know, it has to be reviewed this year,” Ebrard said of the USMCA. “We have made progress on a number of issues so that the review is as quick and as good as possible.”
The USMCA exempts Mexico from most tariffs imposed by President Trump because goods that comply with its rules of origin can enter the United States duty-free.
Citing data from the National Institute of Statistics, Mexico’s Ministry of Economy reported on Wednesday that the country’s exports would reach a record high of nearly $665 billion in 2025, an increase of 7.6% over the previous year. The report said the United States accounted for 83% of exports, followed by Canada at 3%, China at 2%, Germany at 1% and South Korea at 1%.
Threats to Canada
U.S. trade relations with Canada have soured over the past week, with President Trump threatening over the weekend to impose 100% tariffs on Canadian goods if Ottawa proceeds with a limited trade deal with China that would allow the import of up to 49,000 Chinese-made electric vehicles.
Even before Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney delivered a speech at the World Economic Forum that angered Trump, U.S.-Canada trade relations were deteriorating.
In comments to lawmakers on Wednesday, Carney denied that he had withdrawn from a speech in Davos, Switzerland, in which he urged countries to accept the end of the rules-based global order Washington once championed.
This drew criticism from US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant, who warned Carney not to provoke the United States as the USMCA review loomed.
Bessant said on CNBC that Carney “came to power with an anti-American, anti-Trump message, which is not a good place to be when you’re negotiating with an economy many times your size and your largest trading partner.”
(Reporting by David Lauder in Washington, Costas Pitas and Brendan O’Boyle in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Inigo Alexander in Mexico City; Writing by David Lauder and Ryan Patrick Jones; Editing by Tom Hogg)