A panel of trade experts offered a candid assessment of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), calling it a powerful engine of regional integration that's increasingly strained by unresolved disputes, tariff tensions and shifting geopolitical pressures as the pact approaches its first joint review.
Sens. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, asked the Commerce Department to open an investigation on the national security threat of imports of heavy machinery, such as products made by John Deere and Caterpillar.
Former government officials from the Biden and first Trump administration said they've been pleasantly surprised by how the government is working to comply with a Court of International Trade directive to refund reciprocal tariffs and stop liquidating entries that include those tariffs.
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.
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.
At about 65 recent meetings in the House and Senate, foreign-trade zone advocates asked Congress to push the administration to use the opportunity of the USMCA review to change the duty-deferral restriction.
Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., asked the administration to tackle trade facilitation, Mexican labor standards and wages, and to negotiate rules of origin that cut out Chinese inputs.
The USMCA renegotiation that's happening this year -- not a review that Canada and Mexico had hoped for -- will be focused mostly on how to reduce inputs from outside the region and strengthen U.S. rules of origin, though the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will not recommend extension of the free trade pact unless shortcomings are fixed, a panelist said.
A panel at the Council on Foreign Relations disagreed on whether double-digit tariffs on nearly all trading partners will go beyond the end of the Trump term, even as a majority of voters believe the tariffs are making goods more expensive, adding to the affordability problem the country is facing and harming the economy.
The United States and Mexico have begun preparing for this year’s joint review of the USMCA, launching bilateral discussions that will shape the first major test of the pact since it entered into force in 2020.