Labor rights
To ensure that Mexico implements higher labor standards that aim to allow Mexican workers to unionize and to drive up wages, the deal includes a new mechanism under which the United States and Canada can convene panels of international labor experts to complaints that Mexican factories are denying the freedom to organize and collectively bargain.
The change stops well short of initial US demands to place foreign inspectors in Mexican plants.
But if such violations are found and remedial actions are not taken, it allows the complaining country to rescind tariff-free access for the offending facility’s products, among other penalties.
The text also creates presumptions that any labor or environmental violation affects trade and investment, a legally important distinction that makes it difficult for an offending country to ignore such disputes.
Steel and aluminum
The text will require 70% of steel used in North Americanbuilt cars and trucks to be fully produced in the three countries, closing the door to the use of semi-finished steel from China and elsewhere.
“Such processes include the initial melting and mixing and continues through the coating stage,” the text said, adding that the tighter standard does not apply to raw materials such as steel scrap, iron ore or raw alloys.
Mexico and Canada agreed to a seven-year phase-in of the new standard for steel. A US demand for a similar standard for aluminum was dropped, but with the caveat that it would be reconsidered in 10 years.
Internet services, E-commerce
US Democrats lost their bid to remove a provision that grants big internet services providers liability protections for third-party content, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.
The Trump administration has agreed to drop language from US legislation to implement USMCA that would have allowed it to lower the $800 value threshold under which shipments can enter the United States tax free without an act of Congress, people familiar with the decision said.
The so-called “de-minimis” level benefits small business owners, but some Trump administration officials claim that it provides an unfair subsidy to Chinese firms selling goods to US consumers through Amazon.com Inc, Ebay Inc and other online platforms.