Did Trump really fix NAFTA?
Summary: Trump replaced NAFTA with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement in 2020. But his USMCA has so far failed to make trade work for North American workers.
Key findings
The U.S. trade deficit with Mexico and Canada has widened sharply since Trump signed USMCA; it reached a projected $263 billion in 2025, up from $125 billion in 2020.
Although the agreement sought to revitalize U.S. manufacturing industries, manufacturers across the country shed or furloughed more than 576,000 jobs since he signed the agreement.
In the critical automotive industry that Trump said he wanted to reshore, imports of motor vehicles and parts from Mexico nearly doubled following USMCA, rising to $274 billion in 2024, up from $196 billion in 2019: Light-duty vehicles imports from Mexico rose 36% while imports of medium- and heavy-duty vehicles increased a whopping 256%.
https://www.epi.org/publication/did-trump-really-fix-nafta-what-usmca-failed-to-do-and-how-to-put-workers-first-in-north-american-trade/