U.S. Rejects 16-Year USMCA Extension, Chooses Annual Reviews Through 2036

On July 1 the United States declined to renew the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement in its current form and chose annual reviews until the pact expires in 2036, Fox News reported. Ottawa and Mexico City had sought a 16-year extension. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin stated that people from 78 nations have been apprehended crossing the northern border.

U.S. agents are arresting a terrorist on the watch list nearly every week at that border, and over the past year enough fentanyl to kill 17 million Americans has been seized coming through Canada, Fox News reported.

Federal prosecutors have unsealed recent cases documenting organized smuggling networks operating through the northern border, with cartel groups shifting activity northward, Fox News reported. Canada’s dairy supply management system sets production quotas, controls prices and applies tariff walls that can exceed 200 percent. U.S.

Dairy producers have filed repeated USMCA dispute complaints over Canada’s manipulation of tariff-rate quotas. In May 2026 police executed Manitoba’s largest drug bust in history and recovered 1.35 million contraband cigarettes. Canada has maintained legislative restrictions on foreign ownership for its Big Three carriers since 1993, and roughly 78 percent of domestic Canadian flights are operated by Air Canada or WestJet.

Canada’s Competition Bureau has recommended opening the aviation market to foreign carriers. The Trump administration has indicated that a new USMCA framework and the trade certainty Canada seeks are available in exchange for stronger border enforcement and removal of sector protections.