[CTC] Harris blasts Trump for USMCA auto rules, suggests she'll use 2026 review process to address them

[Arthur Stamoulis]

https://insidetrade.com/daily-news/harris-blasts-trump-usmca-auto-rules-suggests-shell-use-2026-review-process-address-them


*Harris blasts Trump for USMCA auto rules, suggests she'll use 2026 review
process to address them*

By Dan Dupont / September 27, 2024



The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement negotiated by the Trump administration
made it “far too easy” for auto companies to outsource jobs, Vice President
Kamala Harris charged on Thursday, touting her vote against the deal and
saying she will use the 2026 USMCA review process to address her concerns.

Ahead of former President Trump’s visit to Michigan on Friday, where he
reportedly will focus on auto issues, Harris issued a statement
calling Trump “one of the biggest losers of manufacturing in American
history” who “makes empty promise after empty promise to American workers,
but never delivers. As President, he cut taxes for corporations, encouraged
outsourcing, and lost nearly 200,000 manufacturing jobs, including auto
jobs.”

Harris charged that Trump was “repeating the same playbook and telling the
same old lies about how he’ll fight for working people, including those in
Michigan” but said it was “Trump’s trade deal” – USMCA – “that made it far
too easy for a major auto company like Stellantis to break their word to
workers by outsourcing American jobs.” Stellantis, an automotive powerhouse
that produces Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep vehicles, among many others, said
this week it was planning an undisclosed number of layoffs “across its
footprint,” the Detroit Free Press reported
<https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/chrysler/2024/09/24/stellantis-uaw-worker-layoffs-external-market-conditions/75362821007/>
.

Noting she was just one of 10 senators to vote against USMCA in early 2020
– at the time citing a lack of focus on climate change
<https://insidetrade.com/node/169401> – Harris said “I knew it was not
sufficient to protect our country and its workers.”

*“Many who voted for this deal conditioned their support on a review
process, which as President I will use,” Harris added.*

USMCA is up for its first six-year review in 2026, when adjustments can be
negotiated. If the three parties to the deal agree, it will continue for
another 16 years. If not, the agreement will stay in force for 10 years,
during which the three can continue to review it and negotiate changes.

The agreement’s auto rules of origin were touted by Trump officials as a
victory when USMCA was finalized, but they have been controversial from the
start. The U.S. has stuck to an interpretation of auto and parts content
requirements that differs from Canada’s and Mexico’s. In January 2023, a
USMCA dispute settlement panel ruled that the U.S. was in violation of its
commitments under the agreement.

Since then, though, the U.S. has made clear it has no intention of changing
its interpretation <https://insidetrade.com/node/180471>. -- *Dan Dupont*(
ddupont at iwpnews.com)
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