On June 19, 2019, Mexico became the first of the three involved countries to ratify the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement (USMCA), which is intended to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). In a nearly unanimous vote, Mexico’s Senate approved the trade agreement. The bill will now be sent to the Mexican executive branch for publication in the Diario Oficial to mark the formal ratification of the USMCA. After Mexico’s ratification, U.S. Trade Representative Robert…

On June 7, 2019, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Iran’s largest petrochemical holding group, Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industries Company (PGPIC). In addition to PGPIC, OFAC placed 39 PGPIC subsidiaries and foreign-based sales agents on its Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List. According to OFAC, PGPIC was sanctioned for having provided, or attempted to provide, financial, material, technological or other support for, or goods or services to or in support…

After a week of uncertainty, the United States and Mexico reached an agreement in which Mexico will work to stem the tide of migration across its southern border and into the United States, while the Trump administration agreed to forgo the implementation of a 5 percent tariff on the import of goods from Mexico. In releasing the Joint U.S.-Mexico Declaration, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stated that “The United States looks forward to working…