Among other provisions impacting intellectual property, the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) announced today includes Article 20.H.7, which states:

Article 20.H.7: Term of Protection for Copyright and Related Rights:
Each Party shall provide that in cases in which the term of protection of a work, performance or phonogram is to be calculated:

(a) on the basis of the life of a natural person, the term shall be not less than the life of the author and 70 years after the author’s death…

Article 20.H.7(a) would extend the term of copyright protection in many works from the current life of the author + 50 years to life of the author + 70 years. The new, longer term is in line with the term in the United States and many European counties. The longer term was also agreed to in the now defunct TPP agreement. Read the text of USMCA Chapter 20 on Intellectual Property Rights here.