The United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted implementing instructions on its website to provide additional detail and instruction for compliance with the automotive rules of origin under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). The instructions are available HERE. CBP developed these instructions in close consultation with USTR and the Department of Labor. These instructions are not final and are subject to further revision, but they are intended to supplement information already available in the Agreement itself and the implementing legislation to provide clarity to the automotive industry on the new requirements for compliance under USMCA.

USTR has also announced the procedures for the submission of petitions by North American producers of passenger vehicles or light trucks to use the alternative staging regime for the USMCA rules of origin for automotive goods. These procedures will be published in the Federal Register available HERE. The Agreement already includes a standard staging regime available to all vehicle producers, but it also allows vehicle producers to request an alternative staging regime that would permit a longer period of transition to help ensure that future production is able to meet the new rules. The Federal Register Notice identifies the information a vehicle producer must include in its alternative staging proposal, as well as procedures for submission. To be assured of consideration, a vehicle producer must submit a petition with a draft alternative staging plan no later than July 1, 2020, and a vehicle producer must submit a petition with its final alternative staging plan no later than August 31, 2020.

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