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The “Pass USMCA” coalition is “focused on supporting swift passage of the USMCA by highlighting its unique benefits to America's workers, consumers, businesses, and economy.”
Citing concerns with drug patenting and pricing practices, industry groups are urging the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to keep Colombia and Canada on its list of most egregious intellectual property violators this year, which would require USTR to launch action plans for each country.
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said Monday that his department has been telling the White House and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer that the steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada and Mexico should be lifted.
“The biggest threat to the USMCA in establishing a strong global baseline for IP protection lies in its exclusion of a whole swathe of the Canadian economy.”
“You can have the best language on any subject in a bill, but if you don't have the enforcement provisions very strongly spelled out – not as a sidebar, not as a side letter, but central to the treaty – then there's a problem.”
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland will be in Washington, DC, this week, amid heightened calls in Canada and Capitol Hill to lift Section 232 restrictions on steel and aluminum.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on Tuesday submitted to Capitol Hill changes to existing laws he says will be needed to bring the U.S. into compliance with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
The report on the economic impact of the deal was set to be completed by March 15.
“The 232s are doing nothing but allowing others to gain market share in the U.S.”
Deputy U.S. Trade Representative C.J. Mahoney on Wednesday urged mayors across the country to help expedite the ratification of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
In a letter to Ross and Lighthizer, the associations say they “wish to underscore the importance of lifting tariffs on steel and aluminum imports and the removal of all retaliatory tariffs on trade among the parties.”
“I have insisted in hearings with the negotiators of this free trade agreement that they make the chapter on labor right obligatory, that it is not a recommendation, because otherwise, there will not be a major change.”
“Subjecting shipments from Canada and Mexico to a reciprocal threshold would place administrative and cost burdens on small businesses, increase complexity for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and start a global race to lower thresholds – undermining U.S. e-commerce leadership.”
Incoming Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) said on Wednesday that if Democrats insist on re-opening trade talks with Canada and Mexico, the president should “pull out” of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
“We want to make sure that there's a market for [U.S. oil and gas] that is being developed in historic ways. So, [USMCA] is an important priority of ours and we will work to see it accomplished within the first session of this Congress.”
A coalition of business groups focused on getting the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement through Congress is slated to be launched in the coming weeks, Inside U.S. Trade has learned.
The Trump administration will have its hands full in 2019, with new talks slated to begin with Brussels, Tokyo, London and potentially more, as well as the implementation of a revised deal with South Korea. The fate of the U.S.-Mexico -Canada Agreement will also be determined next year by a new Congress.
Mexican legislation to establish labor reforms called for in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement is unlikely to be passed before a Jan. 1 deadline included in the pact, leaving sources and lawmakers questioning whether the timing of the deal’s entry into force might be impacted.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) would support President Trump's intervention into the controversial case of Huawei Technologies' chief financial officer, arrested in Canada earlier this month, if it facilitated trade negotiations between the U.S. and China, he told Inside U.S. Trade on Wednesday.