A recent decision by the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement Free Trade Commission directs the USMCA North American Competitiveness Committee to establish a Trilateral Coordination Sub-committee on Emergency Response to coordinate North American efforts to maintain regional trade flows during emergency situations. The sub-committee will be responsible for sharing information and coordinating activities related to matters affecting trade in response to emergency situations.
The decision also creates a trilateral working group under the sub-committee to develop a shared understanding of what constitutes critical infrastructure priorities. The working group is expected to submit a report to the sub-committee, within 180 days from the effective date of the decision, describing the shared critical infrastructure priorities.
USTR indicates that it will lead coordination of both the sub-committee and the working group in partnership with technical experts from U.S. government agencies with emergency response and critical infrastructure expertise. U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai declared that by working together under the USMCA, including through this new sub-committee, the parties “can build resilient supply chains and make North America even more globally competitive.”
For more information, please contact Nicole Bivens Collinson at (202) 730-4956 or via email.
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