The new North American trade agreement comes into effect on 1 July 2020. The agreement, signed by Canada, the United States and Mexico on 30 November 2018, replaces NAFTA.

The new agreement maintains tariff-free access to the three North American markets, while broadening and updating provisions to address current trade issues, including in particular on digital trade, intellectual property (IP), and telecoms.

This “NAFTA 2.0” agreement acknowledges the role of internet in society and establishes specific provisions to ease digital trade among the signatory countries:

• ensures cross-border transfer of personal data, requiring parties to undertake or maintain “appropriate safeguards”; 
• promotes collaboration in tackling cybersecurity challenges, while seeking to promote industry best practices to keep networks and services secure;
• limits governments’ ability to require the disclosure of proprietary computer source code and algorithms, to protect the competitiveness of digital suppliers;
• limits the civil liability of internet platforms for third-party content hosted or processed by such platforms; and
• increases intellectual property protection.

In addition, the agreement provides definitions of many additional terms relevant to the digital economy, including digital products, electronic signatures, electronic authentication, computing facilities, and algorithm.

The agreement is known by a different acronym in each signatory country: USMCA in the US, CUSMA in Canada, and T-MEC in Mexico.

This new Cullen International cheat sheet summarises the main issues on digital trade, intellectual property and telecommunications in the new NAFTA 2.0.

Download the infographic

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