The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is welcoming applications for those who would be willing to serve on binational panels under USMCA to review final determinations in antidumping or countervailing duty cases against Canada or Mexico, or by Canada or Mexico against U.S. parties. These applications would be for service April 1, 2021, through March 31, 2022, USTR said in a notice released Oct. 16. Submissions should be made at regulations.gov under docket number USTR-2020-0039.
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.
Even though companies that make cars in North America are going to have to change sourcing to meet stricter rules of origin under USMCA, the director of international public policy for Toyota and the head of Canada's auto parts trade group say they expect carmakers to do so to keep the tariff benefits. Toyota's Leila Afas noted that automakers don't have to comply with trade agreements to import, but said, “I believe many will choose to comply with USMCA.” Afas and others discussed USMCA issues during an Oct. 14 webinar hosted by Rice University.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from Oct. 5-9 in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) was updated Oct. 8. The following headquarters ruling was modified recently, according to CBP:
There is a desire for more “uniformity” for country of origin and marking under USMCA, similar to the rules in Part 102 of NAFTA, said Heidi Bray, manager-U.S. and global customs compliance for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. Bray and other Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee members mentioned a variety of USMCA “challenges” during the Oct. 7 COAC meeting. She said she thinks it would be a good idea to bring back a USMCA working group to discuss those issues.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is making minor changes to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States to correct tariff treatment for certain USMCA-qualifying textile and apparel goods, it said in a notice released Oct. 2. All of the changes consist of renumbering existing provisions of chapter 98 subchapter XXIII. The changes are retroactive to July 1.
The U.S.-Japan mini-deal is not consistent with World Trade Organization rules, a former White House trade negotiator said, so the two sides mentioned a future phase two deal to cover substantially all trade to convince Japan's parliament to pass the accord. Because of the way the deal was structured, with small tariff reductions for Japanese exporters, it did not require a vote in Congress, Clete Willems, speaking recently on a webinar for University of Nebraska students, said. In calling the mini-deal phase one, “I think both sides were playing it cute, to be honest,” Willems, now at Akin Gump, said. He said Japan was not interested in a comprehensive bilateral trade deal, because it still wants the U.S. to rejoin the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
A lead negotiator for the Trans-Pacific Partnership released a paper arguing that reentering the rebranded Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for TPP is still the best way to deal with China's trade distorting practices, but her paper, and speakers on a Sept. 30 webinar, revealed the many barriers to reentry.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has asked the International Trade Commission to initiate a global safeguard investigation into imported blueberries, and whether those imports are causing serious injury to domestic blueberry growers. The agency said it would make this request nearly a month ago, but only just recently put the request in, on Sept. 29.