The new deal known as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement — or USMCA — calls for increasing from 62.5 percent to 75 percent the percentage of a car’s parts that have to come from one of the three countries to qualify for duty-free treatment. It also requires that 40-45 percent of an auto’s content be made by workers earning at least $16 per hour. Vehicles not meeting the requirements would be subject to a 2.5 percent duty.
In a statement Friday, United Auto Workers President Gary Jones argued the new deal “is not strong enough … to deter them from moving products and taking advantage of low cost labor. Unfortunately, as GM’s idling of plants in Ohio, Michigan and Maryland this week showed — the ‘New’ NAFTA, as it stands now, is not strong enough to protect American workers.”
Read the article at The Detroit News.