Key Points
—Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney held a bilateral call on Friday April 24 to coordinate positions ahead of the July 1, 2026 joint review of the USMCA trade agreement.
—Mexico began formal technical discussions with the US Trade Representative in March 2026 on rules of origin, critical minerals, and supply-chain security. Canada re-engaged with the Trump administration only in recent weeks after a five-month breakdown.
—The September 2025 Sheinbaum-Carney strategic partnership agreement is now the operational framework for the Mexico-Canada side of the trilateral negotiation, with Canadian Agriculture Minister Heath MacDonald expected in Mexico in coming weeks.
—Sheinbaum’s nomination of Roberto Lazzeri as the new Mexican ambassador to Washington and the broader economic-team reshuffle complete Mexico City’s preparation for the review.
Ten weeks before the formal USMCA review opens, Mexico and Canada are aligning positions on paper, while Mexico is already several months into technical discussions with Washington. The asymmetry is the story.
The Rio Times, the Latin American financial news outlet, reports that the Mexico Canada USMCA coordination entered a new phase on Friday, April 24, when President Claudia Sheinbaum and Prime Minister Mark Carney held a bilateral call ten weeks before the July 1, 2026 formal joint review of the trilateral trade agreement. The conversation was confirmed by both governments as an alignment exercise rather than a new policy announcement.
The USMCA took effect on July 1, 2020, replacing the North American Free Trade Agreement that had governed continental trade since 1994. The agreement mandated its first formal review six years after entry into force, making July 1, 2026 the first legally scheduled moment when Mexico, the United States, and Canada will open the treaty text itself.
Why Mexico is ahead of Canada on the USMCA track
Mexico and the United States began formal bilateral discussions in early March 2026. US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Mexican Secretary of Economy Marcelo Ebrard announced the first round of scoping talks covering rules of origin, supply-chain security, and foreign-investment review. Greer met Sheinbaum directly in Mexico City last week.
Canada has been on a slower track. Trade talks between Ottawa and Washington broke down in October 2025 and did not resume meaningfully until the last month. Canadian Minister for Canada-US Trade Dominic LeBlanc publicly confirmed the re-engagement this week, and Carney announced a new Canada-US advisory committee to guide the negotiation.
The asymmetry is visible in the positions the two countries have already given up. Mexico approved tariffs of up to 50% on hundreds of China-origin goods — steel, autos, textiles, apparel, footwear — in December 2025, and implemented stricter customs enforcement via amendments to its Ley Aduanera on January 1. Canada has axed its digital services tax in direct response to Trump threats.
Both concessions came before the formal review opened. Both were designed to de-escalate rather than to win negotiating leverage — a gamble that trades predictability of outcome for predictability of process.
The September 2025 strategic partnership as operational framework
Sheinbaum and Carney signed a bilateral strategic partnership agreement at the National Palace in Mexico City on September 18, 2025. The pact was explicitly framed as complementary to the USMCA rather than a hedge against its failure.
The agreement covers economic integration, security cooperation, environmental coordination, and agricultural collaboration. It set up joint working groups that have been running through the winter. In February, more than 400 private companies from both countries met in Mexico City to operationalise the partnership.
Canadian Agriculture Minister Heath MacDonald is expected in Mexico in the coming weeks. Agriculture and environmental policy are the next two sectors queued for deeper bilateral work before the July review opens.
Today’s Sheinbaum-Carney call builds on that framework rather than replacing it. The substantive question now is whether the Mexico-Canada coordination channel can absorb US pressure the way the trilateral can no longer reliably do.
What the US side wants in the review
USTR statements from the March scoping round identified three US priorities. First, stronger rules of origin — meaning higher regional-content thresholds for autos and other industrial goods, with the goal of reducing dependence on Chinese inputs.
Second, supply-chain security, with specific focus on critical minerals and technology. Third, review of foreign investment screening — primarily targeting Chinese investment in Mexican and Canadian industrial capacity that could trigger back-door market access to the US.
None of those three objectives is fully acceptable to Mexico or Canada as currently framed. Mexico’s China tariff step was a down payment, not a final concession. Canada’s supply management system and softwood lumber regime are both under US pressure and both are domestic-political red lines.
Mexico’s reshuffled team for the review
Sheinbaum has assembled an economic team specifically for the USMCA review period. Roberto Lazzeri, head of Nafin-Bancomext, has been nominated as the new Mexican ambassador to Washington. As the Rio Times reported on the Lazzeri nomination, Sheinbaum is prioritising technical economic profiles over traditional political appointments for the review period.
Ebrard remains at the Secretariat of Economy and continues to lead the formal negotiation track. The delegation has been reconfigured with more technical and fewer political profiles than the team that negotiated the original USMCA.
Mexico has also been managing parallel pressures. The deaths of two CIA agents in Chihuahua earlier this month created a separate US-Mexico bilateral crisis. Sheinbaum’s visible response has been cooperative on security while firm on sovereignty.
What to watch in Mexico Canada USMCA coordination
Three variables will define whether today’s Sheinbaum-Carney call translates into operational leverage. The first is whether Canada can close its engagement gap with Washington before July 1. A Canada that arrives at the review without its own pre-negotiated positions is a Canada that cannot help Mexico much.
The second is the China-investment screening regime. If Mexico and Canada can align on a shared foreign-investment-review framework before the review, they enter July with a joint concession prepared. If they cannot, the US negotiates them separately.
The third is whether the USMCA survives the review at all. The Trump administration has publicly raised the possibility of a “drastic renegotiation” or withdrawal.
Sheinbaum’s and Carney’s strategy assumes the agreement holds. If it does not, the Mexico-Canada partnership becomes the fallback rather than a complement.
For investors reading North American trade, today’s call is not a decision point. It is confirmation that Mexico and Canada are still operating as a coordinated bloc ten weeks out from the review, even as their respective US-bilateral tracks have diverged sharply in pace. Whether that coordination holds through July is the question that will determine the shape of the post-2026 trilateral trade framework.
Related coverage: Sheinbaum names Lazzeri US ambassador • Mexico economy 2026 outlook • Sheinbaum, Chihuahua and the CIA deaths