As the leaders of some Canadian provinces have said their country should cut its own deal with the incoming Trump administration because Mexico hasn't aligned with the U.S. to keep Chinese electric vehicles out of its market, the new Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum told reporters that it's nothing to worry about.
USMCA
The U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement is a free trade agreement between the three countries, also known as CUSMA in Canada and T-MEC in Mexico. Replacing the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 2020, the agreement contains a unique sunset provision where, after six years (in 2026), any of the three parties may decide not to continue the agreement in its current form and begin a period of up to 10 years where USMCA provisions may be renegotiated.
Trump transition team members may have already drafted an executive order hiking tariffs on Chinese imports, said Peterson Institute for International Economics fellow Mary Lovely, during a webinar moderated by former European commissioner and now PIIE fellow Cecilia Malmstrom.
In addition to tariff hikes expected in 2025, trade experts are also thinking about the 2026 review of USMCA, and the investment and supply chain planning uncertainty that is likely to follow.
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The Commerce Department published notices in the Federal Register Nov. 12 on the following AD/CV duty proceedings (any notices that announce changes to AD/CV duty rates, scope, affected firms or effective dates will be detailed in another ITT article):
LIVONIA, Michigan -- The consuls general of Mexico and Canada in Detroit encouraged auto industry players to lobby the next administration, to let it know that tariffs on Canadian and Mexican goods would be disruptive to the integrated auto industry, and to push for the administration to comply with a panel ruling on auto rules of origin.
Automakers, chipmakers and broad business groups asked the Bureau of Industry and Security to give their industries more time to adjust to new requirements to move supply chains out of China and report on what companies are in their connected vehicle supply chains.
CBP will bolster a number of existing initiatives in the coming months aimed at preventing the import of products made with forced labor, said Katie Woodson, assistant director within the operations and forced labor divisions of CBP's Office of Trade, during a panel on forced labor at last week's Western Cargo Conference.
The Aluminum Association is pleased by the hike in Section 301 tariffs on aluminum products -- even though it applies to more products than it wishes were covered -- and says Mexico's reporting is helping with trade remedies covering Chinese, Russian and Belarussian steel.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is seeking applications for people who can serve on dispute panels reviewing final determinations in antidumping or countervailing duty proceedings when the exporter is from Mexico or Canada. The service period will begin April 1 and run through March 31, 2026. Applications are due by Nov. 29.