Trump vows to renegotiate USMCA free trade agreement with Canada and Mexico

Donald Trump has vowed to renegotiate the USMCA free trade agreement with Canada and Mexico.

Donald Trump has vowed to renegotiate the USMCA free trade agreement with Canada and Mexico if he wins the November presidential election.

"I am announcing today that upon taking office, I will formally notify Mexico and Canada of my intention to invoke the six-year renegotiation provisions of the USMCA that I put in," Trump told the Detroit Economic Club on Thursday.

Following tense negotiations, the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement went into effect in 2020 to replace the earlier North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which Trump targeted soon into his first presidency. The new USMCA agreement is up for review on its sixth anniversary in 2026, when the three countries will have to confirm in writing if they wish to extend the pact or re-evaluate it.

"That was the hardest thing I had to get, they didn't want that," Trump claimed of the unique review clause. "I said, 'Nope, I want to be able to renegotiate in six years, otherwise we're not making the deal.' And I got it, and it's coming due very soon. Oh, I'm going to have a lot of fun."

Speaking on Thursday in Motor City, Trump said he wanted to better protect and promote the U.S. auto industry, which has long been centred in Detroit.

"I'll also seek strong new protections against transshipment, so that China and other countries cannot smuggle their products and auto parts into the United States tax free through Mexico to the detriment of our workers and our supply chains," the Republican presidential candidate said in a wide-ranging speech. "They smuggle this stuff in. They don't pay anything. We're going to have very strong language on that."

The negotiations that began in 2017 to replace NAFTA brought Canada-U.S. relations to a low-point, as Trump hurled insults at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and slapped hefty tariffs on Canadian aluminum and steel.