Mexico

The U.S. sugar industry is urging the Commerce Department to quickly adopt new proposed sugar suspension agreement amendments with Mexico, which are identical to the 2017 amendments that the Court of International Trade declared void last month.

The House Ways & Means Committee chairman and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi were set to speak with USTR Robert Lighthizer on Thursday.

The Justice Department has requested a 90-day stay of a Court of International Trade ruling ordering the U.S. to vacate 2017 amendments to sugar suspension agreements with Mexico while the Commerce Department solicits comments on identical suspension agreements to those defeated amendments, according to a sugar industry group.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is pushing auto companies to commit that all of their output -- even autos manufactured and sold within the U.S. -- will meet U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement regional value requirements, tying the demand to requests for longer transition periods for complying with USMCA auto rules of origin, sources tell Inside U.S. Trade.

Any agreement on a U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement implementing bill hammered out by House Democrats and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will have to be reviewed and approved by Mexico and Canada, Mexican Under Secretary for North America Jesús Seade said on Thursday, suggesting the process could delay ratification.

Mexican officials have been working to assuage concerns among U.S. lawmakers and labor groups that Mexico won’t live up to its U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement labor commitments, but AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka this week said he remained wary, calling Mexico’s funding plan for labor reform implementation “voodoo economics.”

House Democrats and the Trump administration are nearing the final stages of U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement negotiations, revising proposals “line by line” and eyeing only “a few more meetings” to finish their work, key lawmakers said on Wednesday after a discussion with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) says he is concerned “for the first time” about the ratification of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

A House working group set up to address Democrats' concerns with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement is making progress in its talks with the administration, House Ways & Means Chairman Richard Neal (D-MA) said on Thursday, saying the sides were “firming it up” but acknowledging more progress was needed on labor.