USMCA Will Have Unfinished Details After July 1, UPS Says

Even as UPS officials warned traders that the date of entry into force for the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement will not be postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic responses, they said all the details needed to comply won't be ready by July 1. Penny Naas, senior vice president for international public affairs at UPS, said it's not just the auto rules of origin that are “going to be provisional” in USMCA. She said that government officials will still be working on some other areas after it goes into effect. The global shipping company is in close contact with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

Kelly Wilton, a director in UPS's customs brokerage division, said that despite the growing tension between China and the U.S., she expects both countries will stick with the phase one trade deal, which reduced one set of Section 301 tariffs from 15% to 7.5%, and paused further escalation of the trade war. “I would not expect any near-term changes to tariffs,” she said during a webinar May 20. She said that while she doesn't expect higher tariffs on Chinese imports in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, she also thinks none of the tariffs will be rolled back this year.