TradeLane

It has been two years since the implementation of the United States – Mexico – Canada Free Trade Agreement. For those of you reading this outside of the US, the agreement is referred to in Canada as the Canada – United States – Mexico Agreement (CUSMA); and in Mexico, this agreement is referred to as Tratado entre México, Estados Unidos y Canadá (T-MEC). All three names refer to the same trade agreement.

India is aggressively working with various countries and economic unions on Free Trade Agreements (FTA). Notwithstanding the benefits, compliance around the utilization has to be robust. We encourage traders to optimize the utilization of FTAs to reduce the duty impact while maintaining proper compliance requirements. If you have any queries on how the latest FTA may impact or benefit your organization, please reach out to our trade compliance consultant professionals at Tradewin India.

If I learned anything from 2020, it’s that I don’t know what is in store for the future. In the last few years, we went from talking about how the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) would transform trade, to Brexit, to the trade war, to the global pandemic.

The EU and Mercosur (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay) agreed recently on a draft-free trade agreement that, if implemented, will create the largest free trade area in the world, connecting over 770 million people. The free trade agreement has been agreed in principle and will now move to legal revision. This will lead to a final text of the agreement being sent to the member states of both blocs for approval.

While we wait for the US Administration to work out details on any potential trade deal with the EU, Turkey has moved to the forefront.

Section 232 steel duties on goods produced in Turkey will be doubled to 50% effective August 13^th  with an increase for aluminum duties to 20% still pending. Automobile and automobile parts duty increases are still being contemplated.