The chairman of a committee on trade negotiations made up of major Mexican business groups said June 10 that he knows of no deal to guarantee U.S. exports of agricultural products to Mexico, according to a report in the Mexican newspaper Milenio. Moises Kalach, chair of the Strategic Consultative Council on International Negotiations of Mexico’s Business Coordination Council, told the newspaper that “the information that we have is that there is no business agreement, nor export limits, nor purchases of American products; the deal is solely on topics related to immigration.” Kalach said there’s no way to make such a deal because private companies buy American goods, and there’s no way to obligate them to buy them.

The future for international trade with Canada is closely aligned with what will happen in the U.S. on several fronts, Canada-based law firm Bennett Jones said in its spring 2019 economic outlook report. The likelihood of passing an updated NAFTA recently got a boost through the end to U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum from Canada and Mexico and the retaliatory tariffs from those two countries, the law firm said. Still, the U.S. said it expects monitoring and surge prevention related to steel and aluminum, though it remains unclear exactly how this will occur. "It is not unlikely that difficult bilateral discussions still lie ahead, although it is to be hoped that the Americans would not readily reimpose these tariffs," the firm said.

The government of Canada issued the following trade-related notices as of June 10 (note that some may also be given separate headlines):

Recent editions of Mexico's Diario Oficial list trade-related notices as follows:

The government of Canada issued the following trade-related notices as of June 7 (note that some may also be given separate headlines):

Canada's legislature recently approved legislation to implement an updated Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement, Global Affairs Canada said in a May 27 news release. Jim Carr, minister of International Trade Diversification, was pleased with the royal assent of the legislation. “The modernized Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement represents another milestone in the great friendship between our two countries and promises even deeper relations in the years to come," he said. "Our new agreement improves access to the Israeli market for Canadian companies, creating the right conditions for small and medium-sized businesses to compete and succeed, and to create jobs for the middle class here in Canada.” Livingston International said in a blog post that "with both Canada and Israel having now completed their domestic ratification processes, the two countries will proceed to establish a date for the entry into force of the modernized agreement."

Paper cargo control documents for in-bond shipments will no longer be required as of July 1, the Canada Border Services Agency said in a customs notice. "The in-bond movement is now a fully electronic process, in which the cargo will move inland on the electronic Advance Commercial Information (ACI) transmitted to the CBSA at least 1 hour prior to arriving at the border," the agency said. The paper process will remain for re-manifest and abstracts, the CBSA said.

Mexico is extending a grace period for new requirements that took effect June 3 for importers to submit proof of compliance with certain Mexican product standards at the time of entry, the Confederation of Mexican Customs Broker Associations said on its website. Importers that have not yet obtained a certificate from a recognized certification body may nonetheless continue their current operations unchanged, as long as they submit their request for certification to the certification body by June 30 and include a receipt number for the request in their entry documentation. The grace period will last until Aug. 12. Mexico had previously announced that requests had to be submitted by May 31 to qualify (see 1905230061).

The government of Canada issued the following trade-related notices as of June 5 (note that some may also be given separate headlines):

Brazil has suspended shipments of beef to China after discovering a case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy in its Mato Grosso state, according to a June 4 press release from the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture. The agency suspended the issuance of sanitary certificates for shipments to China on June 4, effective for all shipments on or after May 31, the release said. The International Organization for Animal Health has already completed its evaluation of the case and found no risk of the spread of BSE, so exports of beef may continue to be shipped normally to other countries, the release said. The OIE declined to change Brazil’s disease risk status, which remains “insignificant,” the Agriculture Ministry said in another update.