Perspectives on USMCA Diagnostic

In 2022, rare bipartisan cooperation succeeded in passing much of what Washington had in mind for the electric mobility industry, including billions of dollars in new spending now enshrined in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

In July 2020, the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) marked a turning point for North American cross-border trade, creating new rules and opportunities. This has been especially true for participants in the electric vehicle (EV) industry.

On January 11, 2023, a dispute settlement panel organized under the United States – Mexico – Canada Agreement (USMCA) released its Final Report in regard to a complaint lodged by Mexico and supported by Canada that the US was not applying the correct interpretation of the methodologies.

Five Questions, Five Answers

US Government agencies have announced concurrent reviews of the Section 301 and Section 232 tariffs, which may result in changes to the current tariff rates and product lists in the coming months. At the end of this report is a chart specifying the periods and deadlines this spring and summer.

The US Trade Representative (USTR) has issued a Federal Register notice to initiate the first step of a statutory review process to determine whether China tariffs issued pursuant to Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 should be continued beyond the 4-year mark since their implementation.

Five Questions, Five Answers

In this installment of the Five Questions, Five Answers podcast, Birgit Matthiesen talks trade policy with Flavio Volpe, the President of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers of Canada.

Co-hosts Hunter Carter and Malcolm McNeil talk about Mexico trade issues dominating the headlines, with Sánchez Devanny Law Firm Partner Eduardo Sotelo Cauduro.

In this installment of the Five Questions, Five Answers podcast, Birgit Matthiesen and Antonio J. Rivera talk with Steve Griffith, Senior Industry Director of the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA), about what vehicle component manufacturers need to know.

In this installment of the Five Questions, Five Answers podcast, Director of North American Manufacturing Birgit Matthiesen explores the impact of the USMCA on the electric mobility sector with Antonio J. Rivera and James Kim.

US tariffs are applied at the time of import and so the elevated role played by US Customs and Border Protection should not be underestimated.

By the time you open this alert, the USMCA will have been formally and officially launched. These are still early days and there remains much to be clarified by pending rulemaking.

In an April 20, 2020 message to the trade community, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) released the long-awaited United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA) Interim Implementing Instructions (CBP Instructions).

Appendix I, Automotive Rules of Origin and Procedures, to the CBP Instructions provides guidance on the USMCA automotive rules of origin by incorporating the appendix to Chapter 4 of the USMCA Implementation Act.

Any importer who claims preferential tariff treatment under the Agreement for a good imported into the United States from a USMCA country must keep the following documentation for a period of no less than five years from date of entry:

The USMCA permits CBP to verify whether a good entered with a claim for preferential tariff treatment qualifies as originating by written request, or questionnaire; a visit to the premises of the exporter or producer; and any other procedure that may be decided by the Parties.

The USMCA textile and apparel rules of origin are generally based on the “yarn forward” rule, which requires the formation of the yarn (spinning or extruding) and all processes following yarn formation to occur in the USMCA territory.

The USMCA does not require the use of CBP Form 434, as there is no prescribed format for certificate of origins under the USMCA.

Our readers will be aware that the USMCA (CUSMA) is on track for US ratification and – by most accounts – will come into force possibly as early as mid-2020. This is not a lot of time for company executives to prepare. In addition, the three USMCA Partners will soon be meeting to set USMCA implement

Not to be outdone by the recent USMCA breakthrough, there have been significant end-of-the-year developments on the Section 301 tariff front. US importers should take stock as they wrap up activities for 2019 and continue planning for 2020.

Earlier today, House Democrats appeared before cameras on Capitol Hill to announce they had reached an agreement with the Trump Administration on the final text of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

For more than two decades, a broad range of cross-border financial transactions between the United States, Canada, and Mexico were ruled by the 1994 NAFTA.

If the turbulence of 2018 caused business executives grief, the year ahead is unlikely to provide much relief.  Foremost is the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). If most political pundits are correct, the three governments will likely be able to ratify the USMCA in time to be in full fo

In the last hour of the last day of last month, with 30 minutes to spare, US Trade Representative Lighthizer met the US self-imposed deadline and formally sent to Congress the agreed-upon text of a US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA.