Editor's note: This foreword is part of USMCA Forward 2026. Eight years ago, in the second year of U.S. President Donald Trump’s first term in office, North America was in a state of flux. The terms of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that had governed regional trade for a quarter century were being renegotiated. Whether the result would be a new NAFTA, or the end of NAFTA, was uncertain. The private sector paused investment until the outcome was clearer, and risk could be estimated.