The shift from NAFTA to USMCA has been taxing for vehicle manufacturing sector companies, panelists on a KPMG seminar said about the trade deal, one year in. But for Georgia-Pacific, compliance is simpler after the rewrite. Myesha Cottom, director of international trade at Georgia-Pacific, said that getting rid of the template for NAFTA goods and going to minimum data elements means less administrative burden. "I’m optimistic that the administrative burden will continue to decrease," she said during the July 28 webinar.
Mexico's economy secretary met with trade leaders in Congress from both parties, and with auto groups, to argue that U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai's interpretation of auto rules of origin is counterproductive (see 2107230026), but lawmakers don't necessarily agree.
Although there were some specific complaints about how USMCA has gone in its first year -- especially what witnesses and senators said was an anemic effort to get Mexico to change its stance on genetically modified agricultural crops -- much of the hearing in the Senate Finance Committee on July 27 explored how USMCA should be seen as a model for future trade agreements.
The National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America is backing CBP's proposed use of Part 102 marking rules to determine the country of origin for non-preferential claims under USMCA (see 2107010045), the trade group said in a July 27 email. CBP proposes to use NAFTA's Part 102 tariff shift marking rules for determining country of origin for non-preferential USMCA claims and government procurement. Some have wondered whether the proposal will prove to be controversial (see 2107070011 and 2107080040).
Mexico's Economy Secretary, Tatiana Clouthier, said she talked about Mexico's concerns about the auto rules of origin with the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, the ranking members of that committee and of the Senate Finance Committee, two other Republican senators, and four business groups, including two auto manufacturing trade groups, as well as a major aerospace manufacturer.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced on July 22 the hiring of:
The Senate Finance Committee will hold a hearing July 27 at 9:30 a.m. to review the implementation of the USMCA one year after it entered into force on July 1, 2020. The witnesses testifying will be:
CBP is in the process of setting up a second investigations branch in its forced labor division, putting to use additional forced labor funding budgeted by Congress for 2021, said Therese Randazzo, director of the agency’s forced labor division, during CBP’s Virtual Trade Week on July 21.
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from July 12-16 in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
One of the obligations Canada and Mexico agreed to in the NAFTA rewrite is a ban on goods made with forced labor, but Baker McKenzie lawyers said it's not clear how much things are changing in that regard. Paul Burns, a Baker McKenzie partner in Toronto, said that while Canada has changed its law to ban the importation of goods made with forced labor, the Canadian customs agency does not disclose information about its enforcement. "We don’t know if there have been any detentions made," he said. "I expect there hasn't been."