On July 9, a produce industry coalition sent a formal letter to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, urging protection of North American duty-free trade. The letter was directed at the highest levels of the administration's trade and agriculture leadership simultaneously.
This is a distinct and concrete new development from previously covered USMCA letters. Earlier coverage focused on a letter to USTR alone; this one adds USDA and Treasury as co-recipients, signaling that the industry is escalating its outreach across multiple cabinet-level offices as USMCA negotiations intensify.
Watch for any response from the administration and whether coordinated outreach across agencies produces a different reaction than earlier USTR-only requests. The industry's strategy here suggests growing urgency as the review timeline moves forward.