The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is seeking applications for people who can serve on dispute panels reviewing final determinations in antidumping or countervailing duty proceedings when the exporter is from Mexico or Canada. The service period will begin April 1 and run through March 31, 2026. Applications are due by Nov. 29.
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.
Officials from Squire Patton Boggs said that if Donald Trump returns to the presidency, a 10% tariff or higher on a vast swath of imports could come very quickly, but what wouldn't be subject to the tariffs is not yet clear.
Donald Trump, in a lengthy interview with Bloomberg's editor-in-chief, tripled down on his tariff policy, calling the word tariff "the most beautiful word in the dictionary," and saying that his plan of a 10% tariff on all non-Chinese imports is not nearly enough to reverse factory closures.
The strong differences in tariff and immigration policies whether Donald Trump or Kamala Harris wins the election made it difficult for a think tank's economic outlook, but Alejandro Werner, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said that Mexico will have a slow-down in foreign investment over the next couple of years because of "the uncertainty associated with the continuation of the USMCA regardless of who wins the election."
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Former Mexican Ambassador to the U.S. Martha Bárcena said that she has been told that the U.S. will not comply with the panel ruling that said that rollup was understood to be part of the automotive rule of origin (see 2403070067), and she said that is undermining USMCA. She said that's because both the Republicans and the Democrats are fighting for the political support of the United Autoworkers and Teamsters. (The autoworkers' union characterizes rollup as watering down the requirement for North American content in vehicles).
Virginia Lenahan was named the chief international trade counsel on the Senate Finance Committee’s majority staff, committee Chair Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., announced in an Oct. 3 emailed news release. Since joining the committee in 2019 as a trade counsel, Lenahan has worked on issues related to USMCA, the Inflation Reduction Act and more.
House Ways and Means Committee members Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa, and Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Mich., led some fellow committee members and other House members in asking U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai to brief them on the status of the dispute over Mexico's policy on genetically modified corn, and how that might affect the 2026 review of the USMCA.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, in responses to Senate Finance Committee members, talked about changes needed in USMCA, declined to endorse a permanent e-commerce tariff moratorium and called for more money for CBP, to address Section 301 tariff circumvention.
Advocating for a bipartisan bill introduced by Southwestern lawmakers to direct certain fees to land port expansions, equipment investments and staffing was the top priority for customs brokers in town to lobby as part of the group's annual government affairs conference.