National treatment and market access for goods chapter summary
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The modernized national treatment and market access (NTMA) for goods chapter of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) will help reduce the costs of conducting trade, enhance transparency and predictability for Canadian exporters and promote trade in goods between Canada and our North American partners. Canada’s preferential access to both the U.S. and Mexican markets is retained, as the modernized chapter preserves the market access outcomes that were achieved in the original NAFTA.
The NTMA chapter sets out the fundamental disciplines for trade in goods, with the aim of eliminating or reducing barriers to trade in goods.
The NTMA chapter in CUSMA builds upon existing NTMA commitments between Canada, the United States and Mexico to ensure that traders can continue to rely on the rules that have governed North American trade for over two decades while reflecting new developments in international trade since the original NAFTA came into force. Recognizing the importance of transparency and predictability in international trade, the NTMA chapter includes provisions addressing restrictions on the flow of goods across borders as well as the treatment of those goods once they have entered a foreign market. These provisions help reduce the costs of conducting trade, address non-tariff barriers and create conditions conducive for trade, all contributing to a more prosperous Canadian economy.
Technical summary of negotiated outcomes: National treatment and market access for goods
- Maintains NAFTA’s current tariff commitments, including those incorporated in the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement of 1989.
- Maintains key obligations governing trade in goods within North America; these include provisions on national treatment, temporary admission of goods, import and export restrictions, administrative fees and formalities, and goods returned after repair or alteration.
- Eliminates provisions that restrict the ability of parties to constrain the export of products (known as the “proportionality clause”).
- Contains enhanced transparency provisions for import and export licensing procedures that will provide greater certainty and predictability, and new rules to address non-tariff barriers related to trade in remanufactured goods (i.e., used but still functional goods that have been reassembled, rebuilt and refurbished such that they perform the same as or similar to a new good).
- Establishes an enhanced committee structure dedicated to issues related to trade in goods.
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