On USMCA, partners say ‘Do no harm’

March 5, 2026 | Bethany Baratta

The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) is working for soybean farmers, and as the countries meet for its scheduled review, one farmer urges those at the table to keep the agreement intact.

“A withdrawal or weakening of USMCA would hurt agriculture at a time where farmers are already facing challenging headwinds,” says Dave Walton, an Iowa Soybean Association (ISA) board member and vice president of the American Soybean Association (ASA). “Our margin has been squeezed recently and any more disruptions to that adds uncertainty to us. And right now, we don't need that uncertainty.”

Walton joined others on stage at Commodity Classic last week, discussing the importance of the agreement and how respective industries have benefited.

The USMCA entered into force on July 1, 2020, picking up as an improved agreement from its precursor, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). When the deal was inked, a 6-year check-in was implemented to review how it’s working.

“Goods moving efficiently across the borders is vital to making farmers and manufacturers profitable, allowing them to compete globally,” says Chris Tanner, a farmer from Kansas and president of the Kansas Association of Wheat Growers. “Because of the certainty provided under USMCA, businesses can scale up plans for the future and focus on growing markets around the world. USMCA also allows all of us to focus on our strengths and what we're good at doing and providing that in an efficient manner for export to the world. This means that North America is the most food secure region in the world.”

U.S. agriculture and seafood exports grew by 47% to Mexico and Canada since the agreement went into force in 2020, according to the Agricultural Coalition for USMCA.

The value of U.S. soybean exports into Mexico grew from $489 million in 1993 under NAFTA to $3.2 billion last marketing year under USMCA.

“Each of our three countries … both exports and imports a wide range of agri-food products with the other, reflecting our complementary strengths in production, our geographic proximity, seasonal availability, consumer demand, and similar regulatory frameworks,” says Matt Ross, vice president of trade policy and crop protection for the Canada Grains Council. “So, the USMCA has really enabled our supply chains to be so deeply integrated in that sense. And in essence, our countries are producing together, innovating together and moving goods through a shared transportation network.”

The gold standard

The importance of stability the USMCA provides cannot be overstated, says Walton.

“We see the USMCA as the gold standard of trade agreements, and it provides stability and benefits to us as soybean farmers. And as we are in these uncertain times, it's one of the things that we've been able to rely on is that stable trade with Canada and Mexico,” Walton says.

Allowing the USMCA to run its scheduled 16 years would continue to benefit the countries included in the agreement, Walton says.

“We're asking that the agreement be pushed and renewed for the full 16 years, maybe some tweaks here and there, but basically do no harm to this agreement because it is working.”

He pointed to several examples that demonstrate these benefits.

The U.S. provides soybeans and corn from the Midwest to Mexico to feed livestock, for example. Cattle are then sent to the U.S. to be finished, then processed, sold, consumed and shipped to/from the country.

“Without that free trade, we'd have to find new homes for a lot of those soybeans,” Walton says.

Nearly 87% of the potash used in the United States comes from Canada.

“This agreement protects that trade,” Walton says. “It’s critically important that those imports are exempt from major tariffs due to their treatment under USMCA.”

Ross says the USMCA has enabled “regulatory harmonization and regulatory cooperation,” which helps the three countries avoid unnecessary barriers to trade.

“Specifically, that means that any sanitary and phytosanitary measures have to be based on scientific and risk-based principles or relevant international standards and this avoids creating unnecessary barriers to trade,” Ross says.

Winning position

The USMCA provides stability in trade, notes Mateo Diego-Fernández Andrade, an international trade lawyer in Mexico.

“What if there wasn't a trilateral region? Let me begin to say that Mexico and Canada, we wouldn't be the biggest losers,” he says.

Canada and Mexico already have a trade relationship with 10 other countries through the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a free trade agreement with Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United Kingdom and Vietnam. The U.S. withdrew from the agreement in 2018.

“In the case of the U.S., there is a lot of uncertainty that has been kept away from the region precisely because of USMCA,” he says, noting the Supreme Court’s recent ruling that struck down President Donald Trump's use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose widespread tariffs—and the new tariffs under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act that soon followed.

“That is an implicit recognition of the importance of the trilateral nature of the agreement. If it wasn't for that, tariffs may go both ways between the U.S. and Mexico and the U.S. and Canada,” Andrade says. “There would not be common sanitary and phytosanitary measures. And the uncertainty for trade and investment would create a great disadvantage—a great economic disadvantage—and would harm both ag producers and companies that invest in these sectors. In an era of global uncertainty, the USMCA secures stronger protections for workers, farmers, and businesses, and ensures that the region remains a dominant economic force.”

Written by Bethany Baratta.

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