Canada, United States, Mexico Create Panel To Coordinate Trade During Emergencies

According to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), Canada, Mexico, and the United States will establish a trilateral panel to coordinate North American efforts to maintain trade during emergency situations. The three countries also will create a working group to develop a shared understanding of what constitutes critical infrastructure priorities during an emergency.

The USTR will lead coordination of both the trilateral panel and the subcommittee in partnership with technical experts from U.S. government agencies who have emergency response and critical infrastructure expertise.

“The COVID-19 pandemic exposed serious gaps in our three countries’ responses to trade flow disruptions during emergencies, as well as our understandings of what constitutes critical infrastructure priorities,” U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said. “Our increasingly integrated supply chains depend on the shared maintenance of North American trade flows, especially in light of the supply chain disruptions caused by Russia’s unjust and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, as well as continuing challenges posed by non-market actors.”

Ambassador Tai said the panels would “enable timely cooperation during emergency situations and to coordinate on critical infrastructure priorities” and would “build resilient supply chains [that] make North American even more globally competitive.”

The news came the day before the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative released its 2022 Report to Congress on China’s World Trade Organization Compliance. That report, according to Ambassador Tai, shows that “China still embraces a state-led economic and trade approach that runs counter to the open, market-oriented principles endorsed by all members of the organization.” Read more here.