Negotiations to review the free trade agreement between the United States, Mexico and Canada (USMCA), scheduled for 2026, will "probably" be bilateral, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on September 30 at a New York Economic Club forum, El País reported.

Greer's words came just weeks after Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum met in Mexico City to agree on topics they will evaluate in the commercial agreement review.

The Carney-Sheinbaum meeting sought to avoid a repeat of the 2018 negotiation in which the United States established conditions separately with each country. Then, Washington began talks with Mexico and closed some agreements only with Mexican negotiators, later integrating Canadian requests, who protested and accused Mexico of "throwing them under a bus", in reference to the behind-their-backs agreements.

"Obviously, we are going to cooperate directly: the USMCA is the strength of the whole, of the three countries, and contributes to making North America competitive," Carney said upon leaving the meeting with Sheinbaum, referring to the possibility of designing strategies between Ottawa and Mexico City to face negotiations with Washington.

Greer's statements align with US President Donald Trump's position. The US leader has floated various times the possibility of making separate trade agreements with Mexico and Canada, and has even imposed tariffs in different proportions on goods not included in the USMCA. However, both Sheinbaum and Carney have made clear the agreement's value is maintaining the three countries as a competitive bloc for global trade.

Trump’s aggressive trade policy has placed both governments in a defensive position. But his announcement of tariffs on Mexican and Canadian goods, 25% in most cases and 50% on semi-finished metals, has been read less as an economic measure than as a negotiating tactic.

Following Greer's remarks, Mexican Economy Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said part of the USMCA negotiations have "a high bilateral content". "It is inevitable, and there are other contents that are trilateral, for example, the trilateral dispute resolution system," he said.

Greer also said the Office of the US Trade Representative is reviewing points where Mexico has not complied with the treaty, Reuters reported. According to the 2025 Investment Climate in Mexico report published this month by the same agency, the US government has detected non-compliance regarding intellectual property by the Latin American country.

"In 2024, no investigations or criminal proceedings for trademark counterfeiting and copyright piracy were reported, and Mexico's Attorney General's Office did not report intellectual property enforcement statistics for the last five years," the report noted.

Additionally, USTR information indicates that US investors identify four aspects as the most relevant concerns about Mexico: lack of energy access; insecurity; corruption; and uncertainty about regulatory frameworks. The report also notes US businesspeople have reservations about the controversial judicial reform undertaken in 2024, which renewed half of Mexico's judges through elections.

"The 2024 judicial reforms could further impact the legal landscape for foreign investors, by affecting the predictability and impartiality of judicial decisions, as well as reciprocity in dispute resolution," the document stated.