Notification of an opportunity to file petitions requesting accelerated tariff elimination under the North American Free Trade Agreement. Similar notices are being published by the Governments of Canada and Mexico. Since 1989, five tariff acceleration exercises have been completed in North America. Given the tariff reductions and eliminations that have already occurred, the scope of potential future accelerated tariff reduction activity is more limited than that of prior exercises, and now involves only trade between Mexico and the United States and Mexico and Canada. Canada- Mexico trade.
Governments encourage petitioners to explore submitting petitions from all three countries.
Documentation must be provided demonstrating producers in each of the relevant countries have reached a consensus to support mutual accelerated tariff elimination. In such cases, documentation is required only from the producer industries in those countries which have remaining duties in place. The governments will expect the petitioners to have contacted all producers in the relevant countries and to have received no objections to the petitions as it is being submitted. Where industry associations exist that represent all producers, petitions or statements of support from these organizations are acceptable and in fact preferred. Governments will not consider a petition if they have information indicating that a consensus view does not exist.