MEXICO/NAFTA/TRADE DEALS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “American trade negotiators are taking aggressive measures to close what they describe as a Mexican ‘back door’ through which steel and other auto-manufacturing components produced outside North America are sold tariff-free in the U.S.
The U.S. trade representative has proposed a significant expansion of the North American Free Trade Agreement so-called tracing list for auto manufacturing, which enumerates parts that require stringent proof of where they were originally made, according to three people familiar with the proposal.
If incorporated into a new deal, the stiffer requirements, laid out in a text presented at last month’s Nafta talks in Washington, could upend the supply chains vehicle manufacturers and auto-parts suppliers have established in Mexico’s industrial north over the last 25 years by making it harder for companies to meet requirements that the vast majority of the components they use originate in the U.S., Mexico or Canada.
President Donald Trump has roundly criticized the $63-billion U.S. trade deficit with Mexico, much of which stems from automotive manufacturing, and promised to revamp or pull out of Nafta in order to reduce it and bring back U.S. factory jobs.”
-Robbie Whelan, “U.S. Pushes Stiffer Content Rules for Nafta Car Makers,” The Wall Street Journal online, Nov. 9, 2017 07:00am