[CTC] USTR notifies Congress on NAFTA trade remedy changes, allowing for March signing

[Arthur Stamoulis]

https://www.politicopro.com/trade/story/2017/09/ustr-signals-new-nafta-deal-could-be-signed-in-march-162402 <https://www.politicopro.com/trade/story/2017/09/ustr-signals-new-nafta-deal-could-be-signed-in-march-162402>
 
USTR notifies Congress on NAFTA trade remedy changes, allowing for March signing
By DOUG PALMER <https://www.politicopro.com/staff/doug-palmer>
 
09/24/2017 01:53 PM EDT
OTTAWA - The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has formally notified Congress of expected changes to U.S. trade remedy laws as a result of renegotiating NAFTA, clearing a statutory hurdle that would allow the revised pact to be signed anytime after March 21, POLITICO has learned.

The United States, Canada and Mexico are striving to finish their work on updating and modernizing NAFTA by the end of the year, which would be extremely quick for a trade negotiation. However, President Donald Trump is eager to make good on his promise to revamp the NAFTA deal and rack up a legislative victory.

Under Section 5(b)(3) of the 2015 trade promotion authority law, <https://www.finance.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/TPA.Bill.fin.pdf> USTR must notify key congressional committees of any potential changes to U.S. trade remedy law at least 180 days before a trade pact is signed. USTR sent that notification letter to Congress on Friday evening, just before the start of the third round of talks on revising the 23-year-old NAFTA pact this week in Ottawa. A House Ways and Means Committee spokeswoman confirmed that it had received the letter.

Once a trade deal is signed, the U.S. International Trade Commission has 105 days to conduct an economic analysis. If a revised NAFTA agreement were signed on March 22, the ITC would have until July 5 to complete its investigation, and theoretically a vote could occur anytime after that.

However, TPA also requires  <https://www.tradebenefitsamerica.org/sites/default/files/Congressional%20Requirements%20and%20Timeline%20TPA-2015%20(with%20footnote)_3.pdf>the administration to give Congress another notification 90 days before signing the agreement and to publish the text of the pact 60 days before signing. So, in order to have the deal ready to sign on March 22, USTR would also have to reach a deal in December and publish the text in January.

Four more rounds are currently scheduled for the NAFTA talks this year, with the last round expected in early December before top trade officials from the United States, Canada and Mexico head to Buenos Aires for the Dec 10-13 World Trade Organization ministerial conference.


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.citizenstrade.org/pipermail/ctcfield-citizenstrade.org/attachments/20170926/6670bc90/attachment.htm>