USMCA Day one is here and it’s the dawn of a new era in trade and starting today, this is the timeline for the coming years
Below are some opportunities in full compliance of the new trade deal:
AUTOS
- Requires that at least 75% of USA cars be produced in the region.
- Requires that at least 35% of them be produced by workers making $16 an hour or more to pass through the countries duty-free.
United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (2018) Chapter 4: Rules of Origin
DISPUTES
- Keeps NAFTA’s dispute-settlement provisions and incorporates them into Chapter 10.
- Restricts NAFTA’s investor-state dispute resolution provisions between the U.S. and Mexico and eliminates them between the U.S. and Canada.
United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (2018) Chapter 10: Trade Remedies
United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (2018) Chapter 31: Dispute Settlement
FTAS WITH NON-MARKET ECONOMIES
- Requires that any member who plans to launch trade negotiations with a non-market economy give the other two at least 3 months’ notice prior to starting the negotiations.
- Allows members to potentially terminate the agreement if a member decides to enter into an FTA with a non-market economy.
- In this case, it allows the remaining members to replace the USMCA with a bilateral agreement between them.
United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (2018) Chapter 32: Exceptions and General Provisions
DAIRY
- Allows U.S. dairy farmers to export the equivalent of 3.6% of Canada’s dairy market into Canada.
- Eliminates Canada’s Class 6 and Class 7 milk categories and associated pricing schedules for skim milk, skim milk proteins, and other components and ultrafiltered milk.
United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (2018) Chapter 3: Agriculture.
CURRENCY
The new deal includes a new currency chapter that commits the three countries to:
- Maintain market-determined exchange rates.
- Refrain from competitive devaluations of their currencies.
- Strengthen the conditions for macroeconomic and exchange rate stability.
United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (2018) Chapter 33: Macroeconomic Policies and Exchange Rate Matters
DIGITAL TRADE
- Prohibits customs duties from being applied to electronically distributed products such as e-books, videos, music, software, and games.
- Allows data to be transferred cross-border and reduces the limits on where data can be stored and processed.
- Places stronger enforceable consumer protections on the digital market.
United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (2018) Chapter 19: Digital Trade
SUNSET CLAUSE
- Includes a 16-year expiration date.
- Requires the U.S., Mexico, and Canada to meet and review the deal every six years, when it can be extended for another 16 years.
United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (2018) Chapter 34: Final Provisions
Don’t miss this opportunity to get goods to market with confidence by seamlessly complying with the USMCA’s new trade agreement rules and documentation requirements from day one.
We make freight shipping to-or-from Mexico easy!
Source: USMCA infographic by the Mexico Institute https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/infographic-the-usmca
Cover photo: Shutterstock