USMCA's Trade Facilitation Improved From NAFTA, Experts Say
Even as COVID-19 delays some advances in trade facilitation -- such as being able to use a single window to export into Canada -- the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement has good news for it, panelists said during a Dickinson Wright webinar May 28.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
Dan Ujczo, director of the firm's cross-border law practice, said all three countries must provide inquiry points, and they commit to providing advance rulings within 120 days of all information being submitted to the Customs agency. He said USMCA has a clearer definition than did NAFTA of in-transit goods. The practice of limiting customs brokers to certain Mexican ports of entry is now prohibited, he said.
Laurie Tannous vice president of government and industry relations at Farrow, said the decommissioning of legacy systems in Canada was delayed due to the measures taken to control the spread of the coronavirus, so the Pre-Arrival Review System and Release on Minimum Documentation are still going to be done outside the single window.
“Both brokers and service providers and importers alike were trying to get themselves ready to submit electronically, to work within this window,” Tannous said. Also, the implementation of the Safe Food for Canadians Act is delayed.
The trade community will be able to give input regularly to tweak the pact. “The USMCA will not be like the NAFTA in the sense that it’s not just going to be an agreement that passed and sits around for 25 years,” Ujczo said. He said a committee on rules of origin, a committee on trade facilitation and a committee on bilateral cooperation on enforcement will all meet regularly.
Tannous agreed, saying the formation of “these committees really shows that this can be more of a living document.”
However, there is a trade-off, Ujczo noted. “The opportunity to hide in the gray areas anymore is over.”