USMCA

Comparing Digital Rules in Trade Agreements

Comparing Digital Rules in Trade Agreements

Parties signing free trade agreements (FTAs) have begun adding new rules to regulate and harmonize provisions of importance to companies trying to operate across multiple jurisdictions.  The latest Issue Paper, from the Asia Business Trade Association, highlights the similarities and differences between this set of cutting-edge agreements in some of the keys areas of interest to digital trade.  Table 1 identifies sixteen key digital provisions across seven FTAs. All seven FTAs, described more fully below, have only two provisions in common.  All contain provisions to include the elimination of customs duties on digital products or electronic transactions, and cooperation elements.  The remaining 14 elements, however, show variation across the FTAs under examination. The United States/Canada/Mexico (USMCA) and Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), show the most advanced provisions under review in this paper.  Both agreements, as an example, include safeguards to protect developers’ rights over their software source code against the demands of disclosure. In addition, the USMCA incorporates source code-related algorithms into the subject of protection, which makes this FTA distinct from previous agreements. This amendment should facilitate implementation by providing greater clarification on source code.

The Five Lessons of NAFTA Negotiations

The Five Lessons of NAFTA Negotiations

The third lesson is that the details matter. Some of the provisions that are currently being ignored by commenters on NAFTA are buried deep in the texts and schedules.  These may turn out to be deeply consequential for NAFTA parties.  Some may also affect outside parties.  As an example, the auto rules of origin require a significant and growing share of autos, trucks, parts, components, steel and aluminum to be made within NAFTA (with more expensive labor inputs as well).  For suppliers based outside of NAFTA, this is going to be extremely problematic or even catastrophic.  These orders could be cancelled outright and never replaced. Alternatively, NAFTA 2.0 could force a renewed look at offshoring or sourcing entirely for export.  Either way, existing supply chains are likely to be under severe stress.

The fourth lesson is that NAFTA contains some problematic provisions that might spread elsewhere.

Evaluating Trade Deals Like NAFTA 2.0

Evaluating Trade Deals Like NAFTA 2.0

Since NAFTA 2.0 builds on the base of the original NAFTA, the new deal had some advantages over the TPP.  For example, tariffs between the parties are already set at zero.  This remains, although do note that there are very complicated tariff rate quotas in place in NAFTA 2.0 that were not scrapped.  Indeed, the level of genuinely new market access granted to partners that have known and worked with one another for decades is vanishingly small.  While much focus, as an example, has been on Canada’s new market access for dairy, the total amount given amounts to barely 0.4%.  And the United States, in return, has an equally complex system of barriers in place to protect its own dairy industry from competition (as well as sugar, oranges, and others). The deeply problematic bits of the agreement can be found buried in the texts.  For instance, the rules of origin (ROO) are incredibly complicated.  Given that tariffs are zero, the only way to keep out goods is to craft ROOs that are impossible to follow. Clearly, for many products, this objective has been met. The level of NAFTA content required in fairly large swaths of products is extremely high.  Commentators keep focusing on the insane requirements for auto production, but note that for a wide range of goods, new NAFTA content rules require 50% or more content.  To make matters worse, in many products, these rules tighten after 3 years, rising to as much as 70% local (ie NAFTA) content.