sep 30, 2018 - (27) US, Canada, & Mexico agree on updated NAFTA, now USMCA
Description:
September 30, 2018: The United States reached an agreement with Canada, alongside Mexico on the updated North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), now called the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). According to the fact sheet released by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), USMCA will include new provisions on textiles that incentivize greater North American production in textiles and apparel trade, strengthen customs enforcement, and facilitate broader consultation and cooperation among the Parties. More specifically, USMCA will promote greater use of Made-in-the-USA fibers, yarns, and fabrics by:
• Limiting rules that allow for some use of non-NAFTA inputs in textile and apparel trade.
• Requiring that sewing thread, pocketing fabric, narrow elastic bands, and coated fabric, when incorporated in most apparel and other finished products, be made in the region for those finished products to qualify for trade benefits.
• Establish a Textiles chapter for North American trade, including textile-specific verification and customs cooperation provisions that provide new tools for strengthening customs enforcement and preventing fraud and circumvention in this important sector.
• USTR says that “the new Textiles chapter provisions are stronger than those in NAFTA 1.0 with respect to both enforcement and incentivizing North American production of textiles.”
Added to timeline:
Trade Timeline
Date:
