Violation of USMCA Trade Agreement and Circumvention of Supreme Court Ruling - February 2025 to August 2026

Trump negotiated and signed the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement in his first term, replacing NAFTA in 2020. Beginning February 1, 2025, he imposed sweeping tariffs on Canada under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, violating the terms of the agreement he had created. Canada retaliated with targeted tariffs on U.S. automobiles, alcohol, and dairy. Three federal courts ruled the IEEPA tariffs unlawful, and on February 20, 2026, the Supreme Court affirmed 6-3 that IEEPA does not grant the president authority to impose tariffs - a power the Constitution assigns to Congress. The same day, Trump announced replacement tariffs under a different statute. After trade negotiations with Canada collapsed in August 2026, he invoked Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930 - never previously used by any president - to impose 50% tariffs on Canadian automobiles, alcohol, and dairy. The U.S. also declined to renew USMCA for a full term on July 1, 2026, shifting it to annual reviews. The sequence illustrates a pattern of violating legal agreements, using executive authority beyond its legal limits, absorbing judicial rebukes, and immediately seeking alternative mechanisms to achieve the same result.