After the economic agreement of the North American countries established by the NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), which began in 1988, the bloc underwent a restructuring for its renewal in 2018. The agreement now called USMCA ( United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement ) was first established as a bilateral agreement between the United States and Mexico , and only after much negotiation did Canada join .
Despite the fact that the first agreement was not established to have an expiration date, the dissatisfaction on the part of the United States led to a negotiation to change its terms. This was because the country considered that the measures of tax exemptions and reductions and for the circulation of goods between countries were causing losses to the American market, proposing protectionist terms for its market.
Main objectives of the USMCA
In the automotive sector , the new economic agreement provides for limitations in the production of automotive parts and components inside and outside the United States.
As a way to prevent the transfer of industries to places with cheaper labor, for example, Mexico, the new agreement provides that the production of at least 75% of all parts that make up a car is located in the United States. .
In the dairy sector , the main change from the old to the new agreement concerns the customs barriers to the entry of this productive sector from the United States to Canada. The Canadian government has agreed to reduce these barriers, driving the dairy market to become competitive in Canada.
In the field of intellectual property , the new agreement provides for common periods of intellectual property that were previously different. Before, a company linked to a certain productive sector could move to a country where its intellectual property had already expired or was not in force; with the new agreement, this strategy will no longer be used.
The e-commerce is another sector that has established differences between the old and the new agreement. While, in Nafta, there were no customs and customs differences in this sector, in the new agreement they come into existence. In practice, before, the contracting of streaming services , games and electronic books had the same values in the three countries; now they are treated separately.
According to aparentingblog, another difference between the old and the new free trade agreement of the countries of North America refers to its duration. While the old agreement had no term, the new agreement will last 16 years.
Much of the changes in the agreement were favorable to the United States, which is also the country with the greatest economic strength in the bloc.
