After a complaint from Casa Obrera del Bajio, a Mexican labor organization in Guanajuato state, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is asking Mexico to review whether workers at the Grupo Yakazi factory there were denied rights to freedom of association because of irregularities during the workers' vote in March on whether to retain the union that had been representing them.
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.
Office of the U.S. Trade Representative senior advisers Jamila Thompson and Beth Baltzan and special counsel Victor Ban said during a recent trip to Wyoming, Montana and Idaho that workers they heard from want the office to increase the use of enforcement tools in the USMCA.
A listing of recent Commerce Department antidumping and countervailing duty messages posted on CBP's website Aug. 2, 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.
Mexico has rejected a rapid response mechanism complaint from the U.S. concerning employer actions at a lead, zinc and copper mine called San Martin, in Zacatecas state. This is the first time Mexico has disagreed with a request, but the government signaled this position during the trinational summit last month (see 2307070043).
The U.S. and Mexico this week resolved a complaint involving workers' rights at the Draxton auto parts foundry in Irapuato, Guanajuato, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced July 31, marking the fifth time the countries agreed on a formal course of remediation under the USMCA's Rapid Response Labor Mechanism.
The interagency committee that manages rapid response labor complaints under the USMCA made one pro-business change to the petition and investigation guidelines, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce highlighted in a recent blog post.
The Biden administration will complete its review of the Section 301 tariffs "this fall," U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai wrote to senators, and while she did not commit to any course of action, she wrote: "As part of the 4-Year Review of the Section 301 tariffs, USTR is reviewing the effectiveness of the tariffs in achieving the objectives of the investigation, as well as the effect of the tariffs on consumers, workers, and the U.S. economy at large. As part of this review, we are considering the existing tariffs structure and how to make the tariffs more strategic in light of impacts on sectors of the U.S. economy as well [as] the goal of increasing domestic manufacturing."
The Commerce Department published notices in the Federal Register July 14 on the following AD/CV duty proceedings (any notices that announce changes to AD/CV duty rates, scope, affected firms or effective dates will be detailed in another ITT article):
The Treasury Department published its spring 2023 regulatory agenda for CBP. There are no mentions of any new trade-related rulemakings, though the agency did move two rules off its agenda to a lower-priority list of planned long-term actions. One of the rules would finalize in the customs regulations the increase of the de minimis level from $200 to $800 under the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015. The other would amend CBP's regulations on disclosure of information regarding merchandise bearing suspected counterfeit trademarks by creating "a procedure for the disclosure of information otherwise protected by the Trade Secrets Act to a trademark owner when merchandise bearing suspected counterfeit trademarks has been voluntarily abandoned."
Canada and Mexico talked about the panel ruling on auto rules of origin -- a decision that went their way but that the U.S. has chosen not to implement -- and Canada brought up the issue with U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai as well, according to readouts from Mexico and Canada about the bilateral meetings July 6 ahead of the official Free Trade Commission meeting in Cancun, Mexico.