Canada, Mexico, and United States Agree on New Trilateral Free Trade Agreement

October 2, 2018

Canada, Mexico and USA agree on New Trilateral Free Trade Agreement.

After more than one year of negotiations to modernize the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Canada and the United States reached an agreement alongside Mexico on September 30, 2018.

The provisional text of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) has been published, and the Ministry of Economy formally rendered a copy to the Mexican Senate in order to comply with Mexican publicity requirements and approval processes for such treaties.

The publicly available version confirms expectations that the agreement will have a significant impact on all aspects of the intellectual property (IP) legal framework in Mexico.  The new obligations for Mexico in this agreement will be reflected in the realms of trademarks, patents, copyrights, trade secrets, and enforcement of IP rights.  Overall, compared with NAFTA, the IP chapter of the USMCA provides a higher standard of IP protection, and will therefore have a positive effect for IP owners.

The agreement is expected to be executed by November 2018, then the ratification process in each country will commence. In subsequent newsletters, Olivares will analyze and report the various changes to domestic law as a result of the obligations contained in the treaty.

The USMCA will also positively influence other areas of Mexican law, will strengthen and facilitate trade in the region, and should have an overall favorable outcome for economic growth in all three countries