The Senate Finance Committee agrees on two things: First, the U.S. Mexico and Canada Agreement (USMCA) isn’t perfect and a number of issues need fixing. Second, they don’t want tariffs. And even though no one on the committee mentioned steel and aluminum tariffs during a Feb. 12 hearing on USMCA, former House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX-8) [Testimony] said as one of the witnesses that exempting Mexico and Canada from the Section 232 tariffs were a “top priority” in his view. No one brought the subject up again after that.
The USMCA will undergo a congressional review process beginning July 1.
Brady said that Mexico has already been working closely with the United States, especially on U.S.-based investment and assuring China does not take advantage of the duty-free benefits.
Canada may be another story. Although no one mentioned it at the hearing, Canada has tip-toed closer to China recently with a deal on Chinese EVs, but for now that is just an import quota. Those vehicles could be exported to the U.S. but would face the Section 232 25% tariffs on cars and car parts, or the 100% tariff on China EVs if simply transshipped here. Canada is unlikely to test those waters anytime soon.
Both Chairman Mike Crapo (R-ID) [Testimony] and Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-OR) [Testimony] made two important points – the benefits of USMCA show up in the trade figures. These numbers will make it hard for the Trump administration to simply scrap USMCA, a policy Brady kept insisting was a Trump-led, bipartisan success story, with some chinks in the armor that can be repaired. Trump called the USMCA “irrelevant to the U.S.” in January. This could mean that two separate trade agreements are plausible. The Senate Finance Committee is against that, and will reinsert itself in the trade agenda if that becomes a possibility. CPA has argued for replacing USMCA with two bilateral agreements to restore U.S. trade sovereignty, in this report from Nov. 2025.
“We should have more say on trade and tariffs…which we are not doing now,” Wyden said in his opening remarks.
The USMCA trade numbers look like this; U.S. exports to Canada: $349.9 billion in 2024; U.S. exports to Mexico: $334.03 billion.
By comparison, U.S. exports to the European Union, a much richer and larger economy than Canada and Mexico, hit $367.78 billion in 2024. U.S. exports to China were $143.2 billion in 2024.
Brady was often leaned on as the rational, statesman voice on USMCA during the hearing. Brady in fact was the USMCA salesman.
“They buy more U.S. products than any other country(ies) in the world and since USMCA took effect, their investments here have surged by 42% and investments in manufacturing by them have grown nearly 20%,” Brady said.