The United States confirmed Wednesday they're not going to renew the CUSMA agreement in its current form for another 16 years.
This means the trade deal will be reviewed on a yearly basis for the next decade or until an agreement to extend it is made at any point between now and when it expires in 2036.
Canada and Mexico were in favour of extending the agreement as is.
President of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan (APAS) Bill Prybylski called the move a little bit disappointing, but not surprising.
Some experts say if an annual review of CUSMA is done right, it could provide opportunities to address trade issues between the North American countries.
Prybylski acknowledged that, but said there are some caveats.
"If there are circumstances that change and things need to be renegotiated, I guess this is a good opportunity if there's a yearly review to do that, but again, it depends on who's sitting at the table." he said.
"From an agriculture perspective, we are benefiting from having the deal as it is now. If there are going to be yearly reviews and we have to defend the positions that we're in now, that could be troublesome down the road. And again, it depends on who's sitting at the table and what the current situations are in both our countries."
It's been reported that the U.S. has about 60 trade issues with Mexico and about 30 with Canada.
Among the issues the U.S. has with Canada revolves around supply-managed industries such as dairy, poultry, and eggs, specifically limited market access to Canada due to tariff-rate quotas and production quotas.
