Suppliers are not really focusing on finding forced labor violations past a Tier 2 level, Pierfilippo Natta, KPMG's manager of Trade and Customs, said at a KPMG webinar Nov. 9. The survey that revealed that found 68% of companies surveyed only focused on supplier activity in Tier 1 and Tier 2, Natta said, while only 22% of those surveyed focused on Tier 3 and 19% on Tier 4.
USMCA
The U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement is a free trade agreement between the three countries, also known as CUSMA in Canada and T-MEC in Mexico. Replacing the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 2020, the agreement contains a unique sunset provision where, after six years (in 2026), any of the three parties may decide not to continue the agreement in its current form and begin a period of up to 10 years where USMCA provisions may be renegotiated.
A White House adviser on international economics praised the Americas Act, a bill that proposes adding more countries to USMCA, subsidizing business moves away from China to the Western Hemisphere, and lowering U.S. de minimis levels to pay for it.
Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Jayme White, whose portfolio covers Europe, the Western Hemisphere and the Middle East, is leaving his position, with his last day Nov. 1, the office announced.
Mexico's Economy Secretariat announced last week that it resolved issues at Mas Air, a cargo airline in Mexico City, after it received a labor complaint from the U.S. government in late August (see 2308310029).
The U.S asked Mexico to review whether there were labor violations at Asiaway Automotive Components Mexico, a Chinese-headquartered firm that does die casting and machining of aluminum parts in San Luis Potosi. According to Asiaway's website, the factory just opened in June this year, and another expansion is planned, until the factory has 1,700 workers. At that point, the company expects to have $800 million in annual sales from the site.
An analysis of the Rapid Response Mechanism, aimed at bolstering the rights of Mexican workers in USMCA, says it's early yet to see if it raises wages and employment in export-intensive sectors, and if the U.S. is successful in replicating the approach in other trade agreements.
A listing of recent Commerce Department antidumping and countervailing duty messages posted on CBP's website Oct. 12, along with the case number(s) and CBP message number, is provided below. The messages are available by searching for the listed CBP message number at CBP's ADCVD Search page.
Manufacturas VU, the only manufacturer in Mexico to be subject to two rapid response complaints on labor rights, is closing and will have no more operations in Mexico, the U.S. government said.
Canada and the U.S. issued statements about a panel decision on softwood lumber under NAFTA's AD/CVD dispute chapter, but the antidumping duty case, which was brought years ago under NAFTA, not under its successor, is not posted on the USMCA Secretariat's docket, and neither country would share the ruling.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, in a Federal Register notice published Sept. 29, asked for applications from people who would like to serve on panels that review final determinations in antidumping or countervailing duty proceedings and amendments to AD/CVD statutes of a USMCA Party. These people would be on the roster from April 1, 2024, through March 31, 2025. Applications are due by Nov. 30, and can be submitted at www.regulations.gov, docket number USTR-2023-0011.