On July 1, 2020, the United States, Mexico, and Canada updated NAFTA to create the new USMCA. The USMCA is mutually beneficial for North American workers, farmers, ranchers, and businesses. It creates a more balanced environment for trade, support high-paying jobs for Americans, and grow the North American economy.
Agreement highlights include:
All products that had zero tariffs under NAFTA remain at zero under USMCA. Canada will provide new and expanded access (via Tariff Rate Quotas) for U.S. exports of several dairy categories.
For additional information on tariffs, including USMCA and applied tariffs, visit the FTA Tariff Tool and the FTA Resources Toolbox on our FTA Help Center. To learn more about harmonized system codes, visit our Understanding H.S. Codes page.
For goods that are not wholly obtained, you must meet the product’s rule of origin, usually through Tariff Shift or Regional Value Content. Learn more about how to Read and Apply FTA Rules of Origin. The rules of origin may be found in the final text of the FTA. Occasionally, a particular rule of origin may be revised. For the most updated version of the ROOs consult the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States, General Notes — General Note 11.
USMCA includes strong rules of origin for industrial products that will increase regional content and help preserve North American manufacturing, including new rules for autos and auto parts, chemicals, steel-intensive products and textiles and textiles. Find more information in the General Notes – General Note 11. These rules will help ensure that only producers who use sufficient amounts of U.S. or North American parts or materials receive preferential tariff benefits.
USMCA increases the de minimis threshold for purposes of origin from 7 percent to 10 percent, with certain exceptions for textile and apparel goods. For more information, see Article 4.12 of the USMCA Rules of Origin Chapter.
To learn more about FTA rules of origin and resources, visit our Identify and Apply Rules of Origin page on the FTA Help Center.
Once you have determined that your product qualifies for USMCA, you need to declare the product qualifies for preferential tariff treatment.
The USMCA no longer requires a specific certificate of origin. Rather, a minimum set of data elements must be submitted to prove origin. These nine data elements are found in Annex 5-A of Chapter 5 Origin Procedures.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has updated its suggested USMCA Certification of Origin template. Note, you will need to download the file to your computer and then open the file using “Adobe Acrobat”.
For a shipment exported by mail, the following still applies:
Shipments by Express/Courier (do not have to be part of the Courier Low Value Shipment program (CLVS)
Shipment by couriers participating in the CLVS
Qualified shipments not exceeding $3,300 are eligible for importation by approved participants within the Courier Low Value Shipment (CLVS) Program. Less than CAD $3,300
Certification is not required for exports to Mexico that do not exceed US $1,000. A Party may require a written representation certifying that the good qualifies as an originating good; Chapter 5 of the USMCA agreement page 4. Record-keeping requirements still need to be met.
The records used to establish HS classification, origin and values for your materials need to be maintained generally for 5 years from the date of entry.