New Delhi, July 2 -- For businesses that have spent six years routing supply chains through the tariff-free corridor the agreement created, Tuesday's announcement from the United States Trade Representative arrived with clinical brevity. "The United States did not agree to renew the USMCA in its current form," Jamieson Greer said. "As a result, the USMCA is not renewed."

covering everything from Michigan auto parts to Mexican maquiladoras to Canadian lumber - passed its first mandatory renewal deadline on July 1 without a U.S. signature, converting a fixed-term pact into an open-ended annual review cycle that could stretch to 2036. The agreement remains in force. The certainty that once defined it does not.

The decision reverses a deal ...