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Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at the fate of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, indirect U.S.-Iran technical talks on the Strait of Hormuz, and joint Japan-India efforts to bolster supply chain security.

From ‘Best Agreement’ to Not Good Enough

The United States decided on Wednesday not to renew its trilateral trade agreement with Mexico and Canada. “We are not going to rubber-stamp renewal, not in its current form,” a senior U.S. administration official told reporters. Instead, Washington opted to conduct annual reviews of the deal’s conditions until its term expires in 2036, paving the way for sweeping renegotiations that could upend nearly $2 trillion in annual goods and services.

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at the fate of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, indirect U.S.-Iran technical talks on the Strait of Hormuz, and joint Japan-India efforts to bolster supply chain security.

From ‘Best Agreement’ to Not Good Enough

The United States decided on Wednesday not to renew its trilateral trade agreement with Mexico and Canada. “We are not going to rubber-stamp renewal, not in its current form,” a senior U.S. administration official told reporters. Instead, Washington opted to conduct annual reviews of the deal’s conditions until its term expires in 2036, paving the way for sweeping renegotiations that could upend nearly $2 trillion in annual goods and services.

U.S. President Donald Trump first proposed the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) during a G-20 summit in 2018 as an option to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement, which he had argued was not in the United States’ best interests. “USMCA is the fairest, most balanced, and beneficial trade agreement we have ever signed into law,” Trump told supporters in 2020 after its implementation. “It’s the best agreement we’ve ever made.”

Mexico and Canada were similarly happy with the deal. In the weeks leading up to Wednesday’s renewal deadline, both Mexico City and Ottawa expressed their desire to extend the agreement.

However, Trump has since soured on his own brainchild, insisting that it hasn’t done enough to stop outsourcing and has contributed to the United States’ trade deficits with both countries. “We don’t need anything that Canada has, we don’t........

© Foreign Policy