While the changes to de minimis for Canada and Mexico have been heavily discussed, Doug Band, the Canada Border Services Agency's director general of trade and anti-dumping, directed traders to the revisions' finer points during a CBP Virtual Trade Week seminar on the USMCA, known as CUSMA in Canada.

The Canada government issued the following trade-related notices as of Sept. 4 (some may also be given separate headlines):

The Canada government issued the following trade-related notices as of Sept. 1st (some may also be given separate headlines):

The Canada government issued the following trade-related notices as of Aug. 31 (some may also be given separate headlines):

Mexico is setting new permit requirements for some steel exports to monitor for transshipment amid a surge in its steel shipments to the U.S., it said in a notice in the Aug. 28 Diario Oficial. The monitoring system will cover exports of standard pipe, mechanical tubing and semi-finished products. It will take effect five days after publication of the notice, and remain in effect until the end of June 2021, the notice said. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative agreed to keep in place its exemption for Mexico from Section 232 tariffs on steel products, USTR said in a press release.

Mexico’s General Directorate of Standards granted UL authority through a special “designation” to conduct safety and energy efficiency testing globally for electronics products and equipment imported into that country, the safety science company said Aug. 28. Included are safety tests for audio, video and information technology products and uninterruptible power systems, plus energy efficiency tests for major appliances, it said. With the ability now to test at UL or UL-approved labs outside Mexico, UL “can help reduce time and cost to market for product access to the Mexican marketplace,” it said. Navigating the regulatory landscape of global markets is a “complex and challenging task,” UL said, and COVID-19 “has added another layer of complexity.” The designation means companies can test their products closer to their factories “and mitigate delays due to the pandemic,” it said.

The Canada government issued the following trade-related notices as of Aug. 26 (some may also be given separate headlines):

Global Affairs Canada released a “statement of implementation” for the USMCA, or CUSMA, as it is known in Canada, in the Aug. 22 Canada Gazette, Part I. The statement is meant “to explain the basic rights and obligations in the Agreement so that Canadians have a clearer understanding of the substance and benefits,” GAC said. “It also clearly sets out how Canada interprets the Agreement and intends to pursue the rights and obligations contained therein.”

Brazil recently revoked its automatic and nonautomatic licensing requirements for 210 products with a total “import value” of about $5.6 billion (all dollar amounts in U.S. dollars), the Hong Kong Trade Development Council reported Aug. 24. The move is expected to save importers about $4.1 million in administrative fees, the HKTDC said, and will cut by about 267,000 the number of licenses issued by Brazil’s Secretariat of Foreign Trade. The measure is aimed at reducing government bureaucracy and “further improving the domestic business climate” surrounding trade, the report said.

The Canada government issued the following trade-related notices as of Aug. 21 (some may also be given separate headlines):