{"id":394538,"date":"2025-11-21T11:33:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T11:33:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/394538\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T11:33:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T11:33:13","slug":"from-airlines-to-winemakers-u-s-businesses-push-trump-to-preserve-north-american-free-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/394538\/","title":{"rendered":"From airlines to winemakers, U.S. businesses push Trump to preserve North American free trade"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Among the more than 1,500 submissions to the U.S. Trade Representative during its consultation process, businesses across multiple sectors called for maintaining the USMCA.GEOFF ROBINS\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Across the vast sweep of the American economy, airlines, appliance manufacturers, vintners, parcel companies, restaurateurs, cattlemen, miners and tiremakers have joined to petition the Donald Trump<\/a> administration to uphold North American free trade<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In mid-September, the U.S. Trade Representative launched a consultation process on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, opening an online portal for public comment ahead of a joint review of the free-trade pact expected to formally begin next year. <\/p>\n

Mr. Trump, an outspoken critic of liberalized trade, has overseen the largest increase in U.S. tariffs<\/a> in nearly a century. But among more than 1,500 submissions to the USTR, companies and industry groups large and small have pleaded with the administration to preserve the free movement of goods across the continent.<\/p>\n

\u201cPreserving the architecture of USMCA is paramount,\u201d argues the Coalition of Services Industries, whose members include U.S. credit-card, retail, banking and software giants. \u201cThe integrated North American market is indispensable to the success of American manufacturers,\u201d and without it foreign companies could \u201ccapture market share that rightfully belongs to goods made in America,\u201d said Whirlpool Corp. <\/p>\n

The stability achieved by the USMCA deal \u201cis critical to capital planning,\u201d said MEMA, the vehicle suppliers association. The deal should maintain a \u201cNorth American Tariff Fortress,\u201d argued the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America. <\/p>\n

The fight to preserve North American trade<\/a><\/p>\n

Mining company Rio Tinto even cited then-president Franklin D. Roosevelt and his description of his country during the Second World War as an \u201cArsenal of Democracy.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cBut the U.S. didn\u2019t do it alone,\u201d the mining giant warned. \u201cThis was achieved with the support of neighbours in Canada and Mexico who bolstered the necessary critical materials and work force.\u201d<\/p>\n

The comments, which are publicly available, form an important procedural step for the Trump administration as it prepares to renew \u2013 or renegotiate \u2013 North American free trade next year. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the first and sometimes only opportunity for stakeholders to weigh in,\u201d said Inu Manak, a senior fellow for international trade at the Council on Foreign Relations. <\/p>\n

The U.S. administration is under no obligation to follow the advice it has received from the public comment period, which closed earlier this month. <\/p>\n

Nonetheless, \u201csupport for USMCA is widespread and is likely to play an important role in the eventual outcome of the review process. It will be very difficult for the Trump administration to withdraw from the deal, since it is a matter of U.S. law, and Congress would need to take action to undo it,\u201d Ms. Manak said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPressure from stakeholders thus serves as an important constraint on action, as it did in Trump\u2019s first term.\u201d<\/p>\n

Support for the frictionless movement of goods is not, of course, universal.<\/p>\n

One prominent union, the UAW, used its USTR submission to blame free trade for \u201ca crisis in blue-collar America,\u201d arguing that unless it can secure \u201cexplicit job-security provisions for American workers\u201d and a floor on wages, the U.S. should abandon the USMCA.<\/p>\n

Opinion: U.S. use of poison pills in Asian trade deals signals trouble for Canada in USMCA renegotiations<\/a><\/p>\n

Other groups, such as organic soy growers and California grape growers, raised gripes about trade irritants, including what they see as an unfair import advantage given to Canadian wine fortified with non-fruit alcohol.<\/p>\n

Many companies and industry associations called for changes to USCMA, asking for better enforcement provisions and new measures to co-ordinate border and tariff policies between the U.S., Mexico and Canada. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union called for changes to harmonize port fees and asked for workers to be given a voice in the review process. But, it said, it supports \u201cfair trade, not trade wars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Corporate chieftains have trod carefully around Mr. Trump during his second term, donating to his inauguration and ballroom, dining with foreign leaders and abstaining from public criticism. Many submissions to the USTR are leavened with praise for the President.<\/p>\n

However, they constitute a lusty endorsement of North American free trade \u2013 a priority, too, for those closely aligned with Mr. Trump. Electric carmaker Tesla, for example, said it supports \u201cthe continuation of this important trilateral free-trade agreement in the years ahead,\u201d while calling for continental support of the car-charging plug it developed. <\/p>\n

Tesla chief executive Elon Musk has been a pivotal supporter of Mr. Trump, spending heavily to back his re-election and returning to the White House this week after an earlier falling out.<\/p>\n

The Semiconductor Industry Association said North American free trade is \u201cvital\u201d to \u201cAmerica\u2019s global technology leadership.\u201d Among the association\u2019s members is Nvidia, whose chief executive Jensen Huang has grown close with Mr. Trump.<\/p>\n

The Consumer Technology Association, whose members include tech titans that have also curried relations with the White House, struck a similar note. It used bold-faced text to write, \u201cCTA\u2019s core message is clear: We must extend and strengthen the USMCA.\u201d <\/p>\n

It \u201cwould be a grave mistake\u201d to weaken digital trade provisions in the USMCA, added the Business Software Alliance. Its members include Oracle and OpenAI, whose leaders have publicly praised Mr. Trump.<\/p>\n

Other companies put forward new arguments in favour of an integrated continent. Calgary-headquartered TC Energy said the west coast of Mexico offers a far-better-positioned outlet for U.S. natural-gas exports to Asia.<\/p>\n

The spruce-pine-fir lumber milled from Canadian forests, meanwhile, is preferred by builders, whose demands can\u2019t be fully met by southern yellow pine grown in the U.S. South, wrote Interfor, the forestry company with offices in Burnaby, B.C., and Georgia\u2019s Peachtree City. <\/p>\n

The National Farmers Union, which represents primarily smaller family-run operations, also cast doubt on a key trade priority backed by Mr. Trump and his top lieutenants, who have demanded that Canada further open its market to U.S. dairy exports.<\/p>\n

Opinion: It\u2019s a fantasy to think the USMCA will survive<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cChanging our trading partnership with Canada will not solve our nation\u2019s dairy problems,\u201d Rob Larew, president of the farmers union, wrote in a submission to the USTR. For family farms struggling with financial survival, he said, the bigger problems are domestic, rooted in \u201ccorporate consolidation and rising concentration in agricultural markets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even the automotive sector, which Mr. Trump has sought to bolster in the U.S., warned that importers of foreign-made cars may be the ultimate winners if North American free trade suffers. <\/p>\n

Already, the tariffs imposed under Mr. Trump have caused domestic manufacturers to \u201close market share to Asian imports,\u201d wrote Stellantis, which owns Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny changes to USMCA should reflect the reality that the alternative may be higher imports with no benefit to U.S. workers rather than full onshoring to the U.S. itself,\u201d the company wrote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Among the more than 1,500 submissions to the U.S. Trade Representative during its…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":394539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2148,2138,671,104,2132,692,2147,2131,2143,2144,2140,2133,2130,79,407,746,2142,2137,2159,2134,2135,454,2139,1165,728,2149,108,2154,2155,50,2157,2152,2156,2150,2153,2136,85,2146,80,2145,2151,1458,158,1164,2141,1154,107,2158],"class_list":{"0":"post-394538","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-canada","15":"tag-canada-news","16":"tag-canada-sports","17":"tag-canada-sports-news","18":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","19":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","20":"tag-canadian-news","21":"tag-economy","22":"tag-education","23":"tag-environment","24":"tag-federal-government","25":"tag-foreign-news","26":"tag-globe-and-mail","27":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","28":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","29":"tag-government","30":"tag-life-news","31":"tag-lifestyle","32":"tag-local-news","33":"tag-manitoba","34":"tag-national-news","35":"tag-new-brunswick","36":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","37":"tag-news","38":"tag-northwest-territories","39":"tag-nova-scotia","40":"tag-nunavut","41":"tag-ontario","42":"tag-pei","43":"tag-photos","44":"tag-political-news","45":"tag-political-opinion","46":"tag-politics","47":"tag-politics-news","48":"tag-quebec","49":"tag-sports-news","50":"tag-technology","51":"tag-travel","52":"tag-trudeau","53":"tag-us-news","54":"tag-world-news","55":"tag-yukon"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}