July 2026 marks a critical inflection point for North American trade. Under Article 34.7 of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the three signatories are required to meet on the sixth anniversary of the agreement’s entry into force to conduct a formal review and determine whether to extend USMCA’s operation. That deadline is now months away, and the political environment surrounding it is anything but settled. USMCA replaced NAFTA on July 1, 2020, preserving most of its predecessor’s architecture while updating key provisions.