USMCA: U.S. Pressure and Strong-Arming
Also in this edition: Successful projects confronting the climate crisis. Leader of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo passes away. “Necessary dragons” in Europe and the Americas.
Lea La Jornada Internacional en español aquí.
The Era of Free Trade Is Over
In 1991, while studying at Stanford University in California, Claudia Sheinbaum opposed negotiations for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) promoted by Carlos Salinas de Gortari, questioning the theory that the agreement would boost Mexico’s economy and reduce poverty. Her criticisms of the promises of free trade and neoliberalism proved accurate. However, as president of a country that now sends 84 percent of its exports to the United States under the USMCA framework, and inherits the consequences of NAFTA, Sheinbaum supports free trade.
Sheinbaum and her Secretary of Economy, Marcelo Ebrard, are trying to negotiate the continuation of the USMCA with a U.S. president who criticizes globalization and has repeatedly questioned and even denounced free trade. His administration is “not seeking” to renew the USMCA, Trump said one week before Ebrard traveled to Washington for the second round of negotiations aimed at, well, renewing the agreement.
“I am aware of President Trump’s statements; of course, we follow them every day,” Ebrard told La Jornada. “We are in the midst of a major transition in the international trade regime and, more broadly, in the global economic order.” He acknowledged that the United States has made a “radical and drastic shift in its entire approach to trade management” and that economic security and geopolitical strategy now dominate its trade relationships.
“The era of free trade is coming to an end. We are moving away from the hyper-globalization that was essentially the end of history—free trade—and toward a new system in which differentiated tariffs will be reintroduced depending on where goods are produced. It is a geopolitical design.” He added that the USMCA review cannot be understood as a trilateral negotiation and that Mexico’s final outcome will depend on the tariffs Washington imposes on the rest of the world, particularly direct competitors of Mexican industry such as Vietnam, South Korea, Japan, and the European Union.
Ebrard and his team were in Washington in mid-June to continue negotiations. “The goal is to preserve the treaty,” Sheinbaum said. During her June 15 morning press conference, she emphasized that Washington has stressed, for example, that most components in the automotive sector should be produced in the United States. Mexico agrees with strengthening rules of origin, but on the basis that production should occur within the region. A third round of negotiations is scheduled for the week of July 20 in Mexico City.
The future of the USMCA remains the subject of ongoing debate in the pages of La Jornada.
“It is inevitable that any text agreed upon with Trump administration officials will include provisions harmful to Mexico, Canada, and ordinary Americans, or that disproportionately favor the oligarchy that put Trump in office,” La Jornada warned in an editorial. “What has become clear is the tycoon’s willingness to exploit any situation for purposes of extortion, and that his sole objective is to obtain (or appear to have obtained) the maximum advantage from any circumstance. Therefore, Mexico would make a mistake if it plays into his game of threats and blackmail.” A few days later, La Jornada writes in another editorial “It is necessary to rethink Mexico’s role in the world economy.”
The decision Mexico makes—or avoids making—regarding how it simultaneously relates to the world’s two leading powers, the United States and China, will have long-term implications, explains Enrique Dussel Peters of the China-Mexico Studies Center. Pressure from the United States led Mexico to raise tariffs on products imported from China, yet China remains Mexico’s second-largest trading partner and its presence has steadily grown throughout the 21st century. Dussel added that it is imperative to take China more seriously and not focus exclusively on the United States.
The logic behind the USMCA is closely tied to near-shoring, which is often presented as a historic opportunity, wrote José Romero, former director of CIDE. “But there is no certainty that a flood of companies will arrive, nor sufficient evidence that, if they do, they will produce anything different from traditional maquiladora operations.” He added that “there is much talk about sovereignty, but dependence on the United States continues.” He suggested that Mexico lacks a robust industrial policy and a financial system capable of supporting Mexican companies in their technological and industrial growth.
At the same time, during the week when agricultural negotiations began, U.S. agricultural coalitions had a voice at the negotiating table, while on the Mexican side, the exclusion of peasant and farming organizations was evident, wrote Ana de Ita.
For now, almost all the marbles in this game remain in the hands of the U.S. president. Which raises a persistent question, echoing one from 37 years ago: Is the only option to keep playing on this game board?
The Quote:
“250 pages. 37,500 words. Not a single damn mention of ‘climate change.’”
—U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, on the USMCA
In Case You Missed It
◻️ Projects successfully confronting the climate crisis. From the Oaxaca Water Forum, which focuses on integrated water management and stewardship of water flows, to a community in Yucatán that combines traditional knowledge and resistance against the industrial pork industry, La Jornada Ecológica identifies six successful projects addressing the climate crisis.
◻️ Mothers of Plaza de Mayo leader dies. Lydia Estela Uranga de Almeida was a leader in a heroic and long struggle during one of Argentina’s darkest periods, following the kidnapping and murder of her son, Alejandro Almeida, and some 2,000 others by paramilitary and military groups associated with the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance. Stella Calloni recounts the life of this activist in a moving chronicle.
◻️ Asylum applications in Mexico. Mexico receives more asylum applications than any other country in Latin America and ranks eighth worldwide, according to a United Nations report. In the past, most migrants passed through Mexico on their way to the United States, but in 2025, Mexico became the primary destination for more than half of all migrants. Of the 70,500 people who applied for asylum in Mexico in 2025, most came from Cuba, Venezuela, and Haiti.
◻️ Repression, censorship, and intimidation of media in the U.S. President Donald Trump’s strategy of lawsuits, threats from government regulators, and relentless insults has been effective. It has led some of the most powerful media outlets in the United States to practice self-censorship. Concessions by the owners of The Washington Post and CBS mark a decline in press freedom.
◻️ “My photographs are now part of our collective memory”: Cuéllar. “For 54 years, many of Mexico’s social events have been captured through the camera lens of Rogelio Cuéllar, who as a child would catch a bus from the Portales neighborhood, skipping school with a head full of images and dreams of freedom,” writes Elena Poniatowska. In an interview, the photographer said: “La Jornada is a great window, and it is our home.” Listen to the interview with Rogelio Cuellar. Read the interview in La Jornada Semanal.
◻️ “Necessary Dragons” in Europe and the Americas. Angels and dragons, feathered serpents, centaurs and unicorns, saints and gods, encounters between the celestial and the earthly, crocodiles and lions that are not what they seem, and even details revealing a sense of humor amid the seriousness, all form part of a New York exhibition. The exhibition brings together works of art created over a thousand-year period, from 500 to 1500 CE, in a dialogue between worlds that had not yet encountered one another, yet shared myths, symbols, and wisdom about the imaginary beings that continue to accompany us.
🎥 What We Are Watching
Mexico in the Crosshairs: Trump, fentanyl, and an increasingly tense relationship
The subscription is free.
Edited by David Brooks and Jim Cason in the United States, Tania Molina Ramírez in Mexico City, of La Jornada, and Elizabeth Coll in Tokyo, under the direction of Carmen Lira Saade and Guillermina Álvarez. More information.