WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai on Tuesday urged her Mexican and Canadian counterparts to work together to “implement, enforce and fulfill the terms” of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement to maintain political support for the new trade deal.
Tai, in remarks delivered to the first minister-level meeting to review the USMCA’s implementation, said the three countries must take action to make it succeed.
“For this agreement to be durable, it must serve the needs of everyday people – not just in the United States, but in Mexico and Canada as well. That will only happen if we deliver on our promises,” Tai said.
Tai met virtually with Mexican Economy Minister Tatiana Clouthier and Canadian Trade Minister Mary Ng as part of the USMCA Free Trade Commission, the deal’s governing body that regulates some $1.5 trillion in annual North American trade.
The USMCA in July 2020 replaced the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, adding new chapters on environmental, labor and digital commerce standards and considerably tighter regional automotive content rules.
Tai has made enforcement of USMCA and other trade deals an initial centerpiece of the Biden Administration’s still-developing trade strategy. She helped negotiate stronger labor rights enforcement provisions in USMCA in 2019 as the top Democratic trade lawyer for U.S. House Ways and Means Committee — provisions that helped win broad bipartisan support.
She said USMCA was “only a step” toward a trade policy focused on workers, instead of the traditional goals of liberalizing trade and maximizing efficiency through far-flung global supply chains.
Canada’s Ng said in remarks that the “new NAFTA” sent a strong signal about the three countries’ commitments to protect workers, support small businesses and create a more sustainable future.
“We, as ministers, have an important role to play in ensuring that the Agreement lives up to its full potential and yields benefits directly to our communities,” she said.
IRRITANTS
The opening remarks left out a range of grievances the three ministers raised with each other on Monday in bilateral meetings.
They ranged from U.S. objections to Canada’s dairy quotas to Canada’s concerns about U.S. “Buy American” restrictions on public procurements and infrastructure projects. Both Tai and Ng raised complaints with Mexico’s Clouthier about his country’s investment climate in the energy and mining sectors.
Tai and Clouthier also discussed Mexico’s pledges to uphold workers rights under its labor reform commitments, a week after Tai notified Mexico of a potential labor rights violation associated with a union contract vote at a General Motors (NYSE:GM) truck plant in the central Mexican city of Silao.
Source: Economy - investing.com
