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Neil Herrington, a senior vice-president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, also wants the trade agreement renewed. But he has some criticisms for each country for breaking the rules — chief among them, Trump's trade war against his nation's closest trading partners.

"In imposing tariffs on Canada and Mexico, the U.S. Is in clear violation of the USMCA's core commitment to maintain tariff-free trade within North America," Herrington told the panel.

He also singled out Canada's limits on access to the dairy market, holes in its protection of intellectual property rights, trade barriers on digital services — and, intriguingly, "health care," but didn't go into detail of the concerns.

Herrington said Mexico is "failing to adhere to its obligations" in several sectors, including agriculture, energy and government procurement.

Kevin Brady, co-chair of the Coalition for North American Trade, has kicked off today's testimony.

As you'd likely guess from the name of his organization, he's a big supporter of CUSMA (or USMCA as Americans call it).

"USMCA, as negotiated by President Trump, is a gold standard for trade agreements," Brady said.

He urged the Trump administration not to walk away from the agreement which he said made the U.S. "economically stronger, more secure and strategically positioned to win against aggressive foreign adversaries like China."

Each of the presenters gets five minutes to speak to the U.S. Trade Representative panel, and then the panel gets to ask each presenter one question. So it all moves pretty quickly.

The presenters are grouped by sector. Yesterday, the morning was dominated by legal and policy experts, then the afternoon by agricultural interests.

Today's speakers feature trade and business umbrella groups, manufacturers and the auto industry.

Nearly all of the speakers are Americans, but a handful of Canadians and a couple of Mexican business leaders are due to present today.

Nearly 150 people representing every U.S. Economic sector you can think of, from avocados to zinc, are scheduled to make presentations.

Their input will ostensibly be used as advice to the Trump administration about whether to renew CUSMA, amend it or withdraw.

“Ostensibly” is the key caveat.

I listened to a couple dozen presentations yesterday, and read through dozens more of the written submissions to the hearing, and I've yet to find anyone advocating for walking away from CUSMA — or letting it expire, as Trump has floated.

The testimony at the hearing is to be summarized in a report that the U.S. Trade Representative, Trump appointee Jamieson Greer, must provide to Congress by Jan. 2.

Canadian business jitters may not be unfounded. Politico reported this morning that Trump is considering withdrawing from the agreement next year, citing his 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 USMCA 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, according to Reuters.

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

Hello, I'm a member of the live page team. Canadian business and policy groups are speaking at the CUSMA hearings in Washington, as fears grow U.S. President Donald Trump could pull the plug on the trade deal altogether.

Today, representatives from some of the Canadian industries hardest hit by tariffs will be testifying — including steel and aluminum manufacturer associations, as well as from the automotive and aviation industries.

My colleague Mike Crawley has been attending the hearings and reported yesterday that speaker after speaker called for an extension of the agreement (called USMCA in the U.S.), emphasizing how its free trade terms have boosted revenues through access to both Canadian and Mexican markets.

While the witnesses were testifying about the agreement on Wednesday, a reporter asked Trump for his position on renegotiating it.

"We'll either let it expire, or we'll maybe work out another deal with Mexico and Canada," Trump said at the White House.

The agreement is up for review by July 2026, and set to expire in 2036.

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