This week, the Office of the United States Trade Representative held the first of three bilateral negotiating rounds with Mexico.
The meetings are being held before the upcoming mandatory review of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, on July 1 that all three nations will attend. According to Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, Canada is not a part of these initial talks as the U.S. continues to have what he calls significant trade issues with its northern neighbor.
Transcript
This week, the Office of the United States Trade Representative held the first of three bilateral negotiating rounds with Mexico. The meetings are being held before the upcoming mandatory review of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, on July 1 that all three nations will attend.
According to Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, Canada is not a part of these initial talks as the U.S. continues to have what he calls significant trade issues with its northern neighbor.
Ian Sheldon, Economist, Ohio State University: “I think the ongoing tit for tat language between the Canadian Prime Minister and the U.S. President, and you know, continual back and forth is a little bit worrying in terms of the robustness of the agreement.”
Greer says he wants the renegotiated pact to eliminate the current tariff-free zones, pointing out that the U.S. is going to have tariffs as long as there is what he calls a giant trade deficit with the two other countries.
Ian Sheldon, Economist, Ohio State University: “I think from an agricultural standpoint, it would be unfortunate if we were to undermine, I’m speaking as an economist here, it would be unfortunate to undermine the system. Remember that our number one agricultural export market is actually Mexico and our number two market is Canada.”
The USMCA was signed by President Trump on July 1, 2020, to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement that was enacted in 1994.
For Market to Market, I’m Laurel Bower.
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