Donald Trump, in a lengthy interview with Bloomberg's editor-in-chief, tripled down on his tariff policy, calling the word tariff "the most beautiful word in the dictionary," and saying that his plan of a 10% tariff on all non-Chinese imports is not nearly enough to reverse factory closures.
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.
The strong differences in tariff and immigration policies whether Donald Trump or Kamala Harris wins the election made it difficult for a think tank's economic outlook, but Alejandro Werner, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said that Mexico will have a slow-down in foreign investment over the next couple of years because of "the uncertainty associated with the continuation of the USMCA regardless of who wins the election."
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Former Mexican Ambassador to the U.S. Martha Bárcena said that she has been told that the U.S. will not comply with the panel ruling that said that rollup was understood to be part of the automotive rule of origin (see 2403070067), and she said that is undermining USMCA. She said that's because both the Republicans and the Democrats are fighting for the political support of the United Autoworkers and Teamsters. (The autoworkers' union characterizes rollup as watering down the requirement for North American content in vehicles).
Virginia Lenahan was named the chief international trade counsel on the Senate Finance Committee’s majority staff, committee Chair Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., announced in an Oct. 3 emailed news release. Since joining the committee in 2019 as a trade counsel, Lenahan has worked on issues related to USMCA, the Inflation Reduction Act and more.
House Ways and Means Committee members Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa, and Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Mich., led some fellow committee members and other House members in asking U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai to brief them on the status of the dispute over Mexico's policy on genetically modified corn, and how that might affect the 2026 review of the USMCA.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, in responses to Senate Finance Committee members, talked about changes needed in USMCA, declined to endorse a permanent e-commerce tariff moratorium and called for more money for CBP, to address Section 301 tariff circumvention.
Advocating for a bipartisan bill introduced by Southwestern lawmakers to direct certain fees to land port expansions, equipment investments and staffing was the top priority for customs brokers in town to lobby as part of the group's annual government affairs conference.
A bipartisan group of senators, led by Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., have introduced a bill that would prohibit entry into the U.S. of both cargo and passenger ships that call on a port that was expropriated. Passenger ships are described as those that carry at least 149 people, with sleeping quarters. It also requires the U.S. trade representative to report to Congress on what the U.S. position will be during USMCA review on such expropriations.
During this week's Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) quarterly meeting on Sept. 18, the group's subcommittees offered updates on their activities between June, when COAC last met (see 2406270054), and September.