USMCA urged to form joint mechanism to address China’s national security threats

Witnesses at a US trade agency hearing are pushing officials to put economic security high on the agenda to counter China ahead of a high-stakes review of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

The hearing convened by the Office of the US Trade Representative on Wednesday – the first public session before next July’s joint review of the free trade deal – kicks off three days of testimony from more than 140 representatives from business, think tanks, academia and advocacy groups.

“One cannot make a strategic argument about the value of economic integration without also having a pragmatic and specific plan for ensuring that integration reduces, rather than exacerbates, economic and national security risks,” said Emily Kilcrease, a senior fellow at the Centre for a New American Security think tank.

She urged the three countries to adopt stronger economic security rules – from export controls to investment screening – and to fast-track licensing exemptions and other approvals for one another. She also recommended coordinating tariffs on China while exempting each other from those measures.

In a written submission, she recommended that the three North American economies create an “economic security committee” to oversee implementation of such commitments.

  

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