On March 13, 2020, the domestic approval process for Canada, the last ratified member of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), was completed. Accordingly, the USMCA, signed on October 1, 2018, will be officially into force within the next...
On March 13, 2020, the domestic approval process for Canada, the last ratified member of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), was completed. Accordingly, the USMCA, signed on October 1, 2018, will be officially into force within the next three months. This means that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) system, which has been in charge of trade policy between the three notrh american countries in the past 25 years, has ended, and a new trade environment called the USMCA has been created. The USMCA is the result of the renegotiation of the NAFTA, a key commitment highlighted by the US Trump government, and is a representative product of the US government s policy to strengthen protectionism. Due to the strong commitment of the US to renegotiate NAFTA, the the United States have took the lead of the USMCA in the form of bilateral agreements with Mexico and Canada respectively. In addition, the structure and contents of the agreement have similar characteristics to the TPP, which the US led in the past. The USMCA Fisheries Provisions are contained in Chapter 24(Environment) of the Agreement and consist of a total of five provisions: the importance of sea catching fisheries, fisheries management, marine life conservation, fisheries subsidies regulation and notification, and IUU fishing regulations. The USMCA Fisheries Provisions have the following important meanings in the formation of international fisheries norms. First, it is the only multilateral trade agreement signed by the United States, including specific and comprehensive fisheries regulations. Second, it is likely to be the basis for establishing fisheries regulations under bilateral and multilateral agreements, such as the future FTA and WTO fishery subsidies negotiation.