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US, Canada And Mexico Herald Successful NAFTA Meeting,
by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, Washington
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Following the conclusion of a meeting of the NAFTA Free Trade Commission on
Wednesday, David Emerson, Canada’s Minister of International Trade; Eduardo
Sojo, Mexico’s Secretary of Economy; and Susan C. Schwab, United States
Trade Representative, released a joint statement, outlining the overall results
of the meeting held in Vancouver.
The three Ministers noted that the work accomplished at this meeting would
help to lay the foundation for the upcoming North American Leaders Summit in
Montebello from August 20-21, 2007.
The statement noted that:
"As the NAFTA concludes the complete elimination of duties within North
America, we must look for new and creative ways of further promoting trade and
new business opportunities. We must build upon our initial success, and continue
to strengthen our regional competitiveness with a view not only of intra-NAFTA
trade, but considering other regions as potential destinations for our exports
and an important source of imports."
"In keeping with our collective commitment to increasing market efficiencies,
economic growth, prosperity and innovation in all three countries for the benefit
of our citizens, we engaged in a constructive discussion of what we can do to
achieve these goals. Thus, we have agreed to:
- Develop a work plan to respond to the ever increasing pressures on North
American competitiveness. The plan – which will address the key issues
that impact our trade and identify the most effective means to facilitate
it – will be presented for review at our next meeting so we can develop
a strong and competitive North American platform that increases the welfare
and the prosperity of all our citizens;
- Facilitate trade in specific sectors in order to foster stronger more competitive
North American value chains. To this end, we have instructed officials to
move ahead on the following sectors: swine, steel, consumer electronics, and
chemicals. We also tasked our officials to identify a second set of sectors.
We look forward to receiving progress reports on the first set of sectors,
as well as reviewing work plans for the second set of sectors, at our next
FTC meeting; and
- Conduct an analysis of the free trade agreements that each country has negotiated
subsequent to the NAFTA, beginning with those in the western hemisphere. This
work will focus on identifying specific, meaningful differences between agreements,
especially those related to trade facilitation and transparency."
The three North American trade officials continued:
"We also reaffirmed our commitment to cooperate in other regional and
global fora:
- We are committed to multilateral trade liberalization and to successfully
concluding the WTO Doha Round of negotiations. We urge all WTO Members to
demonstrate renewed energy and flexibility in the negotiations based on the
Chairs’ texts in agriculture and non-agricultural market access, and
put the Doha Development Agenda on a path toward a balanced and ambitious
overall outcome that results in meaningful improvements in global trading
conditions.
- At the same time, we reaffirm our commitments undertaken at our last meeting
of APEC Ministers Responsible for Trade, held in July 2007 in Cairns, Australia.
To this end, we reiterated our commitment to examine the prospect of a Free
Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP)."
"We are also pleased with significant progress on rules of origin. In
2003, the NAFTA Working Group on Rules of Origin set out to liberalize the requirements
for obtaining NAFTA duty-free treatment.
- The first set of changes – affecting approximately US 20 billion
in annual trilateral trade – was implemented in 2005.
- A second set of changes – affecting an estimated US 15 billion in
trilateral trade – was implemented in 2006.
- We have now agreed to a third set of changes – affecting an estimated
US 100 billion in trilateral trade. These changes will be implemented in 2008.
These efforts confirm NAFTA’s ability to adapt to ever-changing competitive
conditions including new sourcing patterns and production methods. In this context,
we asked the Working Group on Rules of Origin to continue its work to pursue
further liberalization opportunities."
"We also commend our officials for having completed the technical rectifications
to align the NAFTA rules of origin with the Parties’ updated tariff schedules
resulting from the World Customs Organization’s amendments to the nomenclature
of the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System that came into force
on January 1, 2007. We are pleased to note that the NAFTA Working Group on Rules
of Origin will soon consult with officials from Chile to share experiences with
issues of common interest."
"We recognize the concept of cumulation of origin as an important mechanism
for creating new business opportunities by strengthening the competitiveness
of North American products globally. The Commission intends to instruct the
Working Group on Rules of Origin to study further appropriate opportunities
for cumulation."
The statement concluded:
"We agreed that regional cooperation has provided significant benefits
for economic growth and job-creation in each of our countries. We further agreed
to pursue opportunities, wherever practical, to promote further cooperation
for the benefit of our producers and consumers. Finally, we agreed that the
United States will host the next NAFTA Commission meeting, at the Ministerial
level, in 2008."
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