Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said a renewal of the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program could happen either by packaging the bill with an omnibus spending bill, or, if Congress just passes another temporary spending bill, by attachment to a tax extenders bill.
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.
Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden's harsh words on USMCA (see 2010300046) would have even more significance if the Democrats are able to take the majority in the Senate with the Nov. 3 election. Dan Ujczo, a close USMCA watcher and partner at Dickinson Wright in Ohio, said lawyers from his firm were talking about Wyden's letter with people in both Mexico and the U.S. He said he sees it more as a political document at the moment. “It’s pretty amazing that USMCA hasn’t been a large factor in the election,” Ujczo said. He said he thought both Democrats and Republicans would claim victory on the NAFTA rewrite, but instead, the election has barely touched on trade, and has been focused mostly on the COVID-19 pandemic and President Donald Trump.
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from Oct. 26-30 in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
A change in administrations could boost the National Association for Foreign-Trade Zones' rear guard action against a proposal for the USMCA technical fixes bill, lobbyist Brian Hannigan told listeners at the NAFTZ virtual conference Oct. 29.
The Democrat who would lead the Finance Committee if the Senate majority changes parties after the election blasted President Donald Trump over labor, auto rules of origin, dairy and biotech export regulations, in a letter that said the benefits promised in renegotiating NAFTA have not been delivered. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., wrote in the Oct. 30 letter that “the Administration has yet to bring any enforcement action under either the state-to-state dispute settlement or the new Rapid Response Mechanism despite the persistence of labor violations in Mexico.”
Importers who use USMCA have been hoping for a technical fix bill so that merchandise processing fees can be refunded when post-entry claims are made, but the prospects of getting the bill done in the first six months of the treaty seem to be fading. “I haven’t had any discussions with [Oregon Democrat Sen. Ron] Wyden on this subject,” Senate Finance Committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said of the committee's ranking member. He also said he doesn't know if there continues to be opposition to unanimous consent to the technical fixes.
Mexico's ambassador to the U.S., Martha Barcena, told the World Affairs Council of Charlotte that Mexico's labor reform is being implemented according to the planned schedule, despite the COVID-19 pandemic. “We are prepared to comply with what we agreed [to] in the USMCA,” she said during an Oct. 29 speaker series event. “Of course, that doesn't mean there will be no complaints, maybe from some people, or some unions. There will always be complaints.”
FBB Federal Relations partner Ray Bucheger told members of the Pacific Coast Council of Customs Brokers and Freight Forwarders Associations that while the message on the Hill is discouraging on extending current Section 301 exclusions, his firm is working on legislation for the companies that received exclusions too late to get refunds for the tariffs paid.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said that the trade facilitation agreement that the U.S. and Brazil signed Oct. 19 is very similar to the USMCA trade facilitation chapter, and that traders should expect more incremental progress in coming months. “There’s a lot more that needs to be done,” Lighthizer said during a U.S. Chamber of Commerce program Oct. 20. “We have ongoing negotiations on ethanol. Brazilians like to talk about sugar. There’s a variety of things in the agriculture area.”
The International Trade Commission on Oct. 14 issued Revision 23 to the 2020 Harmonized Tariff Schedule. The latest edition implements extensions to exclusions from Section 301 tariffs on products from China under new subheadings 9903.88.60 and 9903.88.61 (see 2010010038). A few technical corrections are also made to General Note 11 on USMCA.