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July 3, 2019

The new Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) sets out rules of origin for auto products that need greater clarity to provide certainty for the businesses who must apply them, states a new report from the C.D. Howe Institute.

In “Bumper to Bumper: Will the CUSMA Rules of Origin Make America’s Auto Industry Great Again?” Jon R. Johnson, a former advisor to the Canadian government during the NAFTA negotiations, takes a deep dive into the arcane rules of origin that will determine whether a good is eligible for duty-free treatment and finds they are still unclear in many cases, more stringent than those in NAFTA, and needlessly complex.

Jon R. Johnson

A former partner of Goodmans LLP, Jon Johnson has had extensive experience with international trade law. He was a legal advisor in Canada’s Trade Negotiation Office respecting the automotive provisions of the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement and he advised Canada’s Office of the Trilateral Trade Negotiations during the negotiation of the NAFTA.