People watch the lowering of the flag ceremony at the Zocalo in Mexico City, Saturday, Jan. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

By The Canadian Press

Mexican official says Canada is ‘a fundamental’ part of the CUSMA trade bloc

Mar 12, 2026 | 3:01 PM

OTTAWA — As American officials consider cutting separate deals with both countries, Mexico says Canada is a core partner in the continental trade pact known as CUSMA.

“The Mexican government is very clear that Canada’s participation in our trade agreement is fundamental,” Luis Rosendo Gutierrez Romano, Mexico’s vice-minister of trade, said in Spanish.

He spoke Thursday at a news conference announcing a Mexican trade mission to Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto from May 7 to May 9. The trade mission follows a Canadian one to Mexico last month led by Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc.

The Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement on trade, or CUSMA, has shielded Canada and Mexico from the worst impacts of American tariffs, such as the worldwide 10 per cent duty on goods.

But the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has spread uncertainty about the pact’s future ahead of a mandatory CUSMA review taking place this year.

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Trump has mused about quitting the agreement negotiated during his first administration, calling it “irrelevant” and saying it may have served its purpose. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer has talked about negotiating separate bilateral trade pacts with America’s closest neighbours.

“We see it optimistically, that we will reach July 1 with a very strong, trilateral relationship and with a stronger agreement in terms of trade, but also improvements … in procedures to do a lot more efficiently,” Gutierrez Romano said in Spanish.

The CUSMA review sets up a three-way choice for each country to make in July. They can renew the deal for another 16 years, withdraw from it or signal both non-renewal and non-withdrawal — which would trigger an annual review that could keep negotiations going for up to a decade.

Some have suggested that the contentious Canada-U.S. relationship could mean the United States and Mexico begin CUSMA negotiations with Canada on the sidelines.

Something similar happened during the original CUSMA negotiations to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement during Trump’s first term.

Robert Lighthizer, Trump’s trade representative at the time, recalled in his book that the United States and Mexico came to an agreement and “Canada was welcome to join if it wanted,” but Washington and Mexico City were “prepared to move forward bilaterally if it did not.”

Ultimately, an agreement was reached that was hailed a success in all three countries.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 12, 2026.

Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press