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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 234 / Thursday, December 9, 2021 / Rules and Regulations DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
International Trade Administration 19 CFR Part 356
Docket No. 2111150233
RIN 0625AB20

Procedures and Rules for Article 10.12
of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, Department of Commerce.
ACTION: Interim final rule; request for comments.
AGENCY:

The Department of Commerce Commerce is issuing this interim final rule to amend its regulations pertaining to the procedures and rules related to Article 1904 of the North American Free Trade Agreement NAFTA with appropriate references to the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement USMCA, which went into effect on July 1, 2020. Article 10.12 of the USMCA, like NAFTA Article 1904, provides a dispute settlement mechanism for purposes of reviewing antidumping and countervailing duty determinations issued by the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Commerce is amending its regulations to replace references to Article 1904 of NAFTA
with references to Article 10.12 of the USMCA; to update outdated crossreferences to Commerces antidumping and countervailing duty regulations;
update outdated notice, filing, service, and protective order procedures; and adopt other minor corrections and updates.
DATES:
Effective date: This interim final rule is effective on December 9, 2021. This interim final rule does not apply to any binational panel review under NAFTA, or any extraordinary challenge arising out of any such review, that was commenced before July 1, 2020.
Comment date: To be assured of consideration, written comments on the interim final rule must be received no later than January 10, 2022.
ADDRESSES: Submit comments only through the Federal eRulemaking Portal at http www.Regulations.gov, Docket No. ITA20210006. Due to the COVID
19 situation, Commerce is not able to accept comments submitted by mail or hand-delivery at this time. All comments submitted during the comment period permitted by this document will be a matter of public record and will generally be available on the Federal eRulemaking Portal at
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http www.Regulations.gov. Commerce will not accept response comments accompanied by a request that part or all of the material be treated confidentially because of its business proprietary nature or for any other reason. Therefore, do not submit confidential business information or otherwise sensitive or protected information.
Any questions concerning the process for submitting comments should be submitted to Enforcement & Compliance Communications office at 202 482
0063 or ECCommunications@trade.gov.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Jessica Link at 202 4821411.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background On November 30, 2018, the Protocol Replacing the North American Free Trade Agreement with the Agreement Between the United States of America, the United Mexican States, and Canada the Protocol was signed to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement NAFTA. The Agreement Between the United States of America, the United Mexican States Mexico, and Canada the USMCA 1 is attached as an annex to the Protocol and was subsequently amended to reflect certain modifications and technical corrections in the Protocol of Amendment to the Agreement Between the United States of America, the United Mexican States, and Canada the Amended Protocol, which the Office of the United States Trade Representative USTR signed on December 10, 2019. The USMCA
entered into force on July 1, 2020.2
1 The Agreement Between the United States of America, the United Mexican States, and Canada is the official name of the USMCA treaty. Please be aware that, in other contexts, the same document is also referred to as the United States-MexicoCanada Agreement.
2 Mexico, Canada, and the United States certified their preparedness to implement the USMCA on December 12, 2019, March 13, 2020, and April 24, 2020, respectively. Pursuant to section 106 of the Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act of 2015 19 U.S.C. 4205 and section 151 of the Trade Act of 1974 19 U.S.C.
2191, the United States adopted the USMCA
through the enactment of the United States MexicoCanada Agreement Implementation Act USMCA Implementation Act, Public Law 116
113, 134 Stat. 11 19 U.S.C. Chapter 29, on January 29, 2020. Pursuant to paragraph 2 of the Protocol, which provides that the USMCA will take effect on the first day of the third month after the last signatory party provides written notification of the completion of the domestic implementation of the USMCA through the enactment of implementing legislation, the USMCA entered into force on July 1, 2020. On December 27, 2020, subsequent to the USMCAs entry into force date of July 1, 2020, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021
Appropriations Act, Public Law 116260, was enacted with Title VI of the Act containing technical corrections to the USMCA Act. All of the
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Article 10.12 of the USMCA, like NAFTA Article 1904, provides a dispute settlement mechanism for purposes of reviewing antidumping and countervailing duty determinations issued by the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The procedures and rules for binational panel review of antidumping and countervailing duty administrative determinations under Article 10.12 of the USMCA are virtually unchanged from Article 1904
of NAFTA.
Sections 421433 and 504 of the USMCA Implementation Act provide technical and conforming amendments to the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended the Act related to Chapter 10 of the USMCA on antidumping and countervailing duty matters. The Statement of Administrative Action accompanying the USMCA
Implementation Act provides that, in substance, U.S. laws and regulations are already in conformity with the obligations assumed under Chapter 10
of the USMCA, and, therefore, no changes in administrative regulations, practices, or procedures are required to implement the. . .antidumping and countervailing duty related provisions of Chapter 10. 3
Pursuant to Article 10.12.14 of the USMCA, the United States, Mexico, and Canada trilaterally negotiated and agreed to rules of procedure for binational panel review modifying and updating the previous rules of procedure for Article 1904 of NAFTA.
Effective May 18, 2021, Decision No. 2
of the USMCA Free Trade Commission adopted the rules of procedure applicable to all binational panel reviews under the USMCA. The rules of procedure are contained in Annex II to that decision and are cited as the Article 10.12 Binational Panel Rules.4
Commerces regulations, 19 CFR part 356 procedures and rules for the implementation of NAFTA Article 1904
were first promulgated in 1994 and have not undergone any updates since that time. Although not required by the USMCA Implementation Act, Commerce is amending its regulations changes contained within Title VI of the Appropriations Act are retroactively effective on July 1, 2020.
3 Statement of Administrative Action accompanying the USMCA Implementation Act at 26.
4 Available at: https ustr.gov/trade-agreements/
free-trade-agreements/united-states-mexicocanada-agreement/free-trade-commissiondecisions/usmca-free-trade-commission-decisionno-2. The Secretariat of the USMCA, comprised of a Canadian section, a United States section and a Mexican section, is responsible for the administration of the binational panel review process.

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