Canada

More than a dozen members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus on Wednesday urged President Trump to cancel an upcoming meeting with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to celebrate the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, calling it a distraction from the administration’s handling of the coronavirus and questioning why it is not expected to be trilateral.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has announced a roster of panelists eligible to serve on state-to-state dispute settlement panels as well as appointees to oversee the enforcement of a new rapid-response mechanism under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

The surges of aluminum and steel “ought to be settled peacefully, not by our putting tariffs on,” the Senate Finance Committee chairman said.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Tuesday issued final implementation instructions for the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, one of the last moves the agency says will help ensure a smooth transition from NAFTA once the new deal enters into force on Wednesday.

The U.S. on Monday opposed Canada’s request to retaliate in a World Trade Organization dispute over U.S. countervailing duties on supercalendered paper, with the Trump administration maintaining the ruling is not legitimate -- a stance at odds with that of other WTO members.

A handful of complaints likely will be filed under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement’s rapid-response labor enforcement mechanism soon after the pact enters into force in July, according to several analysts and trade lawyers.

The U.S., Mexico and Canada continue to weigh North American auto industry requests to delay beyond July 1 the implementation of regulations that will guide the application of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement’s auto rules of origin, according to private-sector representatives familiar with the talks.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has for the first time included the foreign operations of a U.S. company, Amazon, on its annual list of “notorious markets for counterfeiting and piracy.”

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on Monday discussed the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement’s looming entry-into-force and enforcement issues with Democrats on the House Ways & Means trade subcommittee.