United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on September 21 that Mexico has been "quite pragmatic" in the USMCA review, and he held up the Mexican aluminum monitoring system, announced that same day, as an example. He said so in an interview with Bloomberg Television reported by Aristegui Noticias.

Greer described the state of the negotiations this way: "We have held many discreet conversations, we don't conduct our negotiations in public. They have made many changes." La Jornada reported that the review has accumulated three rounds of talks since July, that the fourth is scheduled for September 28 and 29 in Washington, and that Mexico is seeking tariff relief for the automotive, steel and aluminum sectors. The USMCA governs Mexico's trade with its two main partners, so adjustments to the rules of origin hit the automotive and auto parts industry head-on, one of the engines of national manufacturing and of formal employment in several parts of the country.

According to Forbes México, both countries are drafting rules of origin to guarantee that goods moving between the United States and Mexico really originate in these countries and do not contain Chinese inputs. Greer pointed to Mexico as "a possible transshipment point" and said the movement of Chinese goods "is an important part of the problem," along with predatory pricing and unfair competition. "That is not a good outcome for us, nor is it the objective of the USMCA," he added. On China, he said the trade truce agreed last year expires on November 10 and that his expectation is that it will not be extended, though he anticipated that the talks will continue.

On both sides of the border, rules of origin define the cost of producing and exporting in the region. The fourth round of negotiations, on September 28 and 29 in Washington, will be the next appointment for gauging whether the pragmatism Greer described translates into concrete changes.

This piece was written with the assistance of artificial intelligence from verified sources and reviewed by a human editor before publication.