Trade Experts at UH Law Conference Say Courts, Tariffs and USMCA Will Define U.S. Trade Policy in 2026

April 9, 2026- One year since “Liberation Day,” that marked the roll out of the current administration’s tariffs, the recent Trade Deals conference at the University of Houston Law Center examined recent developments involving U.S. trade.  At the event, which was co-sponsored by Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP and UH Global Law and Policy Initiative for the Americas, policymakers, scholars and industry leaders examined how shifting tariffs and economic security priorities are reshaping global commerce.

According to Kevin Brady, former U.S. representative from Texas’s 8th congressional district and keynote speaker at the conference, the future of U.S. trade policy this year will hinge on three forces: judicial scrutiny of presidential tariff authority, the review of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement and the durability of the U.S.-China trade relationship.

Brady emphasized the strategic importance of North American integration, noting that Mexico and Canada together represent the United States’ largest combined customer, investor and supplier. That relationship, he said, supports nearly $900 billion in cross-border investment across manufacturing, agriculture, technology and energy. As the 2026 USMCA review approaches, Brady warned that policy uncertainty could have ripple effects across regional supply chains.  Integration is the “secret sauce” of North America free trade, Brady stated.

The conference, titled “Trade Deals: 2026 Outlook on Navigating Tariffs and U.S. Policy Changes,” was organized by Professor Elizabeth Trujillo, founding director of the Global Law and Policy Initiative for the Americas, and Devin Sikes, a partner at Akin Gump whose practice focuses on international trade law and policy.  In her opening remarks, Trujillo described global trade as being at a moment of transition, with countries moving away from decades of multilateral cooperation toward regional agreements and unilateral measures driving new trade deals.

Houston’s role as a global trade hub underscored the relevance of the discussion.  In 2024, the Port of Houston handled more than 53 million tons of cargo, representing an estimated $223.5 billion in trade. For a region closely tied to energy production, logistics and international investment, changes in tariff policy and trade rules carry immediate economic consequences.  Drawing from Houston’s rich legal and international community in financial markets, energy, and trade, the conference hosted four panels discussing impacts in all these areas.  It drew legal experts from academia, practice, and government from Washington DC, New York, Canada, and Mexico.

The first panel moderated by Trujillo explored how recent tariff actions reflect deeper structural changes in U.S. trade policy. Professor Pablo Pinto from UH Hobby School of Public Affairs, which also co-sponsored the event, traced the evolution of U.S. trade law from the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act of 1934 through the rules-based trading system under the World Trade Organization. While tariffs have long served revenue and policy purposes, panelists said recent administrations have increasingly used them as tools of strategic leverage tied to supply chain resilience and industrial policy.

The Roundtable discussion included panelists: Kelly Ann Shaw, partner at Akin Gump and former Deputy Assistant to President Trump for International Economic Affairs, and UHLC Assistant Professor Chris Mirasola, and Devin Sikes, examining the growing overlap between economic security and national security when it comes to tariff policy. Understanding what is motivating the current American First Trade Policy is key to forecasting the impact of trade patterns on supply chains for 2026. As tariffs are more frequently justified on national security grounds, courts are being asked to interpret the scope of executive authority under longstanding trade statutes. Several speakers noted the pending judicial review that would clarify the limits of presidential tariff powers under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), the statute under which most of the recent retaliatory tariffs have been invoked, potentially resulting in an onset of costly tariff refunds to importers.

The business impact of tariff volatility was another recurring theme for this conference.  Higher import costs have accelerated nearshoring and reshoring efforts, while uncertainty surrounding legal and policy developments has delayed investment decisions.  Panelists said the pace of policy shifts, rather than any single tariff action, has driven persistent supply-chain disruption.  On the panel in Business Tool-Kit for Navigating Tariffs, Panelists, which included Nick Diamond of Akin Gump, and Jessica Horwitz of Bennett Jones LLP, discussed various business strategies for managing risk and uncertainty in supply chains impacted by tariffs.  Professor Sarah Dadush, founder of The Responsible Contracting Project, stressed that as U.S. companies wrestle with the questions of amending their business contracts to accommodate for trade volatility, “these types of decisions have enormous impacts on labor rights in global supply chains.”   This impacts companies that must comply with forced labor-related trade sanctions or due diligence requirements in the United States and/or the European Union.  She noted that businesses are finding ways of injecting stability into the supply chain through collaborative discussion with suppliers and transparency, rather than passing on the higher costs to consumers or to suppliers, which in turn can have negative impacts on labor.

Consideration was given to these risk-management strategies on the panel focused on the energy-sector moderated by UHLC Professor Tracy Hester. Panelists consisting of UHLC alumnus Calvin F. McKnight, senior legal counsel of Vitol, J. Hayden Harms of Akin Gump, and UHLC Director for U.S. and Mexican Law Julian Cardenas Garcia, discussed the intersection of trade deals and energy projects. They emphasized that the USMCA provides a critical legal framework for North American energy integration, supporting cross-border flows of crude oil, liquefied natural gas and electricity through regulatory stability and investor protections. Jorge Karmine, a partner at Wilkie Farr & Gallagher LLP in Washington DC, emphasized the need for reliable trade deals for near-shoring to be effective in the Western hemisphere, and to help clients with better price risk. Transshipment of essential inputs, especially in the renewable energy sector in Texas, was also discussed.

The last panel focused on the outlook for North American trade as the United States approaches the 2026 USMCA review. Speakers, including Ricardo Ramirez Hernández, a former WTO Appellate Body judge currently with RRH Consultores, S.C.; Sarah B.W. Kirwin, partner at Akin Gump; Matthew Kronby, partner at Osler, Hoskin, & Harcourt LLP and former director-general of Canada’s Trade Law Bureau; Sunny Wong, professor at the UH Hobby School of Public Affairs and Trujillo, agreed that trade policy is increasingly intertwined with industrial strategy, geopolitical competition and national security dynamics that will remain central to long-term economic growth in Houston and across the Gulf Coast. This panel brought together Canadian, Mexican, and U.S. perspectives to the North American trading relationship, reminding us of an important historical and economic relationship that spans over 30 years, and which represents together, an estimated 1/3 of world GDP.

This conference took place on the heels of the recent U.S. Supreme Court case Learning Resources, Inc, v. Trump, an important decision issued 18 days after this conference, that limited presidential authority to pass tariffs under the IEEPA. 

Check out the photos from the conference: Trade Deals: 2026 Outlook on Navigating Tariffs and U.S. Policy Changes | Flickr

For more information on the conference and panelists, please access the program at https://law.uh.edu/events/tradedeals.asp.