USMCA includes:
- Full national treatment for copyright and related rights.
- Copyright term of life of author +70 years or publication +75 years.*
- Establishes appropriate copyright safe harbors to deter online piracy.*
- Requires application of enforcement measures to the digital environment.
- Minimum 15-year protection for industrial designs.
- Mandates patent term extension for unreasonable patent office and regulatory delays.*
- Requires criminal procedures and penalties for camcording.
- Strong civil and criminal trade secret protections, including against misappropriation by state-owned enterprises.
- 10 years of data protection for agricultural chemicals.*
- Strongest due process and transparency requirements for geographical indications protection systems in any FTA.
- Requires protection against circumvention of technological protection measures.
- Requires ex officio authority for customs officials to stop suspected counterfeit goods.
- Requires criminal penalties and civil remedies be available for both satellite and cable theft.
- Reaffirms Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health.
For more information about protecting your intellectual property, visit the STOPfakes.gov site.
* Subject to a transition period.
USMCA:
- Maintains NAFTA’s existing zero-tariff treatment, significantly expands U.S. access to Canada’s dairy market, and includes a number of other important upgrades.
- Includes a modernized chapter on sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures that establish new and enforceable rules to ensure that SPS measures are science-based and are developed and implemented in a transparent and non-discriminatory manner.
- Includes cooperation on agricultural biotechnology which includes rules – for the first time in a U.S. trade agreement – to address all biotechnologies, including new technologies such as gene editing, to support 21st century innovations in agriculture.
- Covers the full range of dairy products and access will not be shared with other countries.
Canada:
- Will eliminate milk classes 6 and 7 and apply new export penalties.* These policies allowed unfairly low-priced Canadian dairy products to undersell U.S. products in Canada and in third-country markets. Canada will also apply export penalties on shipments of skim milk powder, milk protein concentrates, and infant formula over specified quantity thresholds.
- Will eliminate its discriminatory grading of U.S. wheat and no country of origin statement will be required on Canada’s quality grade certificates.
- Commits to ensuring that British Columbia eliminates discriminatory treatment of U.S.-origin wine in grocery stores and includes new non-discrimination and transparency commitments regarding the sale and distribution of alcoholic beverages.
Mexico:
- Will not restrict market access for U.S.-origin cheeses labeled with certain names.
To learn more about how you will benefit from USMCA agricultural provisions, visit the USDA website.
* Subject to a transition period.
USMCA includes:
- Revised Rules Incentivize the Use of Regional Inputs
- New USMCA requirements to source sewing thread, narrow elastic fabrics, pocketing, and coated fabrics from within North America will expand markets for U.S. producers of these inputs. Staged implementation of these new rules will facilitate a smooth transition from NAFTA to the USMCA.
- Restructured Tariff Preference Levels (TPLs)
- Restructures and rebalances NAFTA TPLs to ensure that this limited exception to the rules of origin is not overused under the USMCA, at the expense of regional supply chains. Reduces some TPLs for U.S. imports from Canada and Mexico, while substantially increasing TPLs for U.S. exports to Canada of apparel and other finished textile goods, which will provide significant new export opportunities for U.S. manufacturers.
- Updated Rules of Origin Provide Flexibility
- Revised rules allow manufacturers to use textile inputs not generally available in North America (e.g., rayon fibers and visible lining fabric) and increases the de minimis percentage of non-originating inputs allowed in qualifying goods from 7 to 10 percent.
- New Robust Customs Enforcement Provisions
- Strong, new textile-specific enforcement procedures will help to prevent circumvention and fraud.
- Excludes TSA Uniform Procurement from Government Procurement Obligations
- Uniforms and other textile products procured for the TSA must be U.S. made, consistent with the Kissell Amendment and similar to Berry Amendment requirements for Department of Defense procurement.
Find more information and resources on the Office of Apparel and Textiles (OTEXA) site. Visit OTEXA’s Textile and Apparel Goods Chapter Summary.
An advance ruling is a written document received from the authority from a USMCA country. It provides binding information on specific USMCA questions you may have about future imports of goods into Canada, Mexico, and the United States.
USMCA:
- Advance rulings, complete or redacted, to be available on a free, publicly accessible website.
- Rulings are issued as expeditiously as possible and in no case later than 120 days after obtaining all necessary information from the person requesting an advance ruling.
Databases of published rulings:
Find additional information on how to apply for an advance ruling, including Mexican and Canadian contact information.
Find additional information on U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s advance ruling procedures.
Note:
For an official determination on whether your product qualifies for USMCA tariff treatment, you will need to seek a formal ruling from the customs administration in the country to which you are shipping.
