Trump could decide next year to withdraw from CUSMA trade deal, Politico reports

International trade lawyer Robert Glasgow says U.S. President Trump is wrong about CUSMA being about to expire, but he could elect to terminate the deal.

U.S. President Donald Trump could decide next year to withdraw from the Canada-United States-Mexico trade agreement (CUSMA), Politico reported on Thursday, citing U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.

“The president’s view is he only wants deals that are a good deal. The reason why we built a review period into CUSMA was in case we needed to revise it, review it or exit it,” Greer told Politico’s White House bureau chief Dasha Burns in a podcast episode that airs Friday.

Greer also raised the idea of negotiating separately with Canada and Mexico and dividing the agreement into two parts in the podcast, adding that he spoke with Trump about that possibility just this week.

The White House, Canadian and Mexican governments did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment.

Trump on Wednesday said that the CUSMA agreement - which faces an upcoming review- will either be left to expire or another deal will be worked out.

The USMCA, which replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement in 2020 and was negotiated during Trump’s first term as president, requires the three countries to hold a joint review after six years.

Reporting by Gnaneshwar Rajan in Bengaluru; Editing by Toby Chopra, Reuters