The clock on North America’s most important trade framework is ticking. The US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the deal that replaced NAFTA in 2020, hits its first mandatory six-year review milestone on July 1, 2026, and the early signs suggest this will be anything but a rubber stamp.
Reports emerging in late June 2026 indicate the US administration is preparing to announce that it will not extend the USMCA in its current form. That single decision, if confirmed, starts a decade-long sunset countdown that could see the agreement expire entirely on July 1, 2036.
How the review actually works
If all three parties agree to extend, the agreement runs for another 16 years, potentially through 2042. If they don’t, annual reviews kick in and the clock starts running toward a hard expiry.
The agreement entered into force on July 1, 2020, replacing a trade framework, NAFTA, that had governed North American commerce since 1994.
