U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai met with both Canadian Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade Mary Ng and Mexican Secretary of Economy Tatiana Clouthier on the first day of two days of meetings under the Free Trade Commission established under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
With Ng, Tai pressed on issues relative to Canada "fully meeting its USMCA commitments, including its allocation of dairy tariff-rate quotas and home-shopping." The Trump administration brought the dairy case in late 2020 and Tai has said she will seek to use negotiation with Canada to move the issue forward. Ambassador Tai also expressed concern about Canada's recently proposed digital service tax, according to a readout of the session from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR).
"They also discussed softwood lumber and WTO reform," the statement said. However, the dairy issue was not mentioned in a similar readout of the session released by Canada, with Ng raising issues with Tai on the U.S. Buy American effort.
With Clouthier, Tai raised several "ongoing issues," the readout of their session said, including "science- and risk-based regulatory approaches in agriculture; access for U.S. fresh potatoes to all of Mexico; an immediate resumption of authorizations of agricultural biotechnology products in Mexico; an energy policy that respects U.S. investment and is consistent with efforts to tackle climate change; and enhanced trade facilitation efforts."
Mexico's labor situation was also an issue broached along with U.S. investigations into Mexican agricultural products, according to a recap from Mexico.