At its core, CUSMA is a set of rules that the three countries agreed to follow. It covers many things: tariffs on goods, rules for cars and trucks, digital trade, and \u2014 the part that matters most for your bidding strategy \u2014 government procurement<\/strong>. Procurement is simply the process governments use to buy goods and services from businesses like yours.<\/p>\n The procurement chapter says that, above certain dollar thresholds, government buyers in each country must let suppliers from the other two countries bid on their contracts, on roughly the same terms as domestic suppliers. In practice, this means a company in Texas can sometimes bid on a Canadian federal contract, and a Canadian company can sometimes bid on a US federal contract.<\/p>\n Every tender that falls under a trade agreement has to say so, and it will list which agreements apply. When CUSMA applies to a contract, foreign suppliers from the US and Mexico get the right to compete for it. When CUSMA doesn’t apply \u2014 because the contract is below the dollar threshold, or falls into an excluded category \u2014 the buyer can restrict the competition to Canadian suppliers only, or use other rules like the new Buy Canadian Policy.<\/p>\n This matters in two directions:<\/p>\n Checking whether CUSMA applies to a specific notice is part of basic bid research. You can see the trade agreement flags on most listings when you run a live tender search<\/a>, which is often faster than reading the full notice line by line.<\/p>\n CUSMA, like other trade agreements Canada belongs to, only applies above certain dollar thresholds<\/strong>. Below the threshold, the buyer isn’t obligated to open the contract to CUSMA suppliers, though they sometimes do anyway.<\/p>\n Thresholds are set in Special Drawing Rights (SDR)<\/strong>, an international accounting unit the World Trade Organization uses so the numbers stay comparable across currencies over time. Canada converts these into Canadian dollars and updates them periodically. They also differ depending on:<\/p>\n Because thresholds change and vary by contract type, always check the specific figure listed on the tender notice rather than relying on memory. If you want the full breakdown of how CUSMA thresholds compare with Canada’s other trade deals, read Trade agreement thresholds explained \u2014 WTO-AGP, CFTA and CUSMA<\/a>.<\/p>\n CUSMA is only one of several trade agreements that govern Canadian procurement. Understanding how it fits alongside the others helps you read a tender notice correctly the first time.<\/p>\nWhy CUSMA matters for your bids<\/h2>\n
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CUSMA thresholds: how they work<\/h2>\n
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How CUSMA compares with Canada’s other trade deals<\/h2>\n
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