The government of Canada recently issued the following trade-related notices as of April 19 (note that some may also be given separate headlines):

Mexican Ambassador to the U.S. Martha Barcena, speaking April 22 at the Georgetown Law School conference on U.S. ratification of the new NAFTA, implored: "We need USMCA not to be taken as a political hostage. We need USMCA to be taken in its own merits." She also said, "We should not let politics stand in the way of free trade that has yielded benefits for both of our societies."

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, arguing that the International Trade Commission's econometric models are better suited for tariff changes than changes in rules of origin, has produced its own report on how the auto rules of origin will affect domestic employment.

A coalition of U.S. producers seeks the imposition of new antidumping and countervailing duties on ceramic tile from China, it said in a petition filed with the Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission April 10. Commerce will now decide whether to begin AD/CVD investigations, which could result in the imposition of permanent AD/CV duty orders and the assessment of AD and CV duties on importers.

The Mexican Confederation of Customs Broker Associations (CAAAREM) issued a circular April 12 correcting earlier information it disseminated on recent changes to the Mexican tariff schedule. The new circular says some tariff rate increases from 20 percent to 25 percent on goods of chapters 61, 62 and 63 will take effect May 6, not April 11 as it previously reported (see 1904110057), and remain in effect for 180 days. The circular was posted by the trade consultancy AJR Mexico.

Recent editions of Mexico's Diario Oficial list trade-related notices as follows:

The Mexico Secretariat of Economy issued two notices April 10 amending the Mexican tariff schedule and making related changes to the PROSEC sectoral promotion and IMMEX maquiladora programs. Notably, the notices reverse tariff cuts previously implemented for footwear, textiles and apparel in February. The changes were detailed in two circulars issued by the Mexican Confederation of Customs Broker Associations (CAAAREM) the following day and posted by Mexican consultancy AJR Foreign Trade.

Toyota does support the renegotiated NAFTA, a top executive said at a trade conference in Washington, even though it will require the company to change some of its sourcing to meet the new 75 percent autos rule of origin. Doug Murtha, vice president of corporate strategy and planning for Toyota's North American division, said that the addition of $3 billion in U.S investments were, "to some extent, changes we had to make for USMCA."

Though “it appears” President Donald Trump’s threat to close the southern border “is (most likely) off the table for the time being” (see 1904040018), a bottleneck in the flow of import goods to the U.S. through Mexican ports of entry is likely to worsen, blogged customs expert Ted Murphy with Baker & McKenzie Friday. The Department of Homeland Security is still reassigning Customs and Border Protection agents “to help deal with the increase in the number of migrants seeking to enter the United States,” said Murphy. Roughly 750 CBP agents have been deployed so far, but the number could climb as high as 2,000, he said. With “fewer agents to handle cargo clearance, it is leading to increasing delays at many of the land border crossings," he said. "We expect this trend to continue, and likely to get worse, in the short term.” Trump, meeting with reporters at the White House Friday, denied changing his mind on the border closure. "I may shut it down at some point, but I’d rather do tariffs" on automobiles entering the U.S. from Mexico, he said. "Mexico, I have to say, has been very, very good" in reducing the flow of migrants into the U.S. "over the last four days, since I talked about shutting down the border," said Trump. "If they continue that, everything will be fine. If they don’t, we’re going to tariff their cars at 25 percent coming into the United States. ... That means we make money as opposed to lose money. We probably bring those car companies back into the United States."

President Donald Trump denied he said Mexico has a year to improve drug interdiction (see 1904040030), but, for the second day in a row, he suggested Mexico is improving its control of migration, so he won't need to close the border soon. "I don't think we'll ever have to close the border because the penalty of tariffs on cars coming into the United States from Mexico at 25 percent will be massive," Trump told White House reporters a few hours after he made the one-year remark, on April 4.