Canada, U.S., Mexico to maintain trade flows in emergency situations

OTTAWA, July 8 (Xinhua) -- Top trade officials of Canada, the United States and Mexico announced Friday the three North American countries will work to ensure trade flows in emergency situations.

Canadian Minister of International Trade, Export Promotion, Small Business and Economic Development Mary Ng, Mexican Secretary of Economy Tatiana Clouthier and United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai met on Thursday and Friday for the second meeting of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) Free Trade Commission.

In a joint statement issued after the meeting, the ministers directed the commission's Competitiveness Committee to complete, within 90 days, negotiations on the establishment of a sub-committee to cooperate during emergency situations in order to maintain, re-establish, or otherwise address issues related to the flow of trade between the three countries.

A working group under that sub-committee will also be set up to coordinate on a shared understanding of critical infrastructure priorities, according to the statement.

The CUSMA entered into force in July 2020. The trading bloc has a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of nearly 25.1 trillion U.S. dollars and a population of 495 million people. The total value of merchandise trade between them reached nearly 1.5 trillion Canadian dollars (1.2 trillion U.S. dollars) in 2021, according to the Canadian government.