Dems take cautious approach to Trump trade deal

Donald Trump declared the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) – the new name for the world’s second-biggest economic bloc behind the European Union – a “wonderful new trade deal”, which came through an 11th-hour agreement late on Sunday.

Negotiators from Canada and the United States went down to the wire but were able to reach an agreement on a new free trade pact that will include Mexico, the governments announced late on Sunday night. Trudeau pledged to compensate farmers to cushion the blow.

“We had to make compromises, and some were more hard than others”, Trudeau said, promising full compensation to dairy farmers who might suffer.

Schumer sounded a cautiously positive note Monday about the new U.S. These provisions allow Canada, Mexico and the United States to challenge one another’s anti-dumping and countervailing duties in front of a panel of representatives from each country.

Both Freeland and Trudeau say it’s important to remember that when the negotiations began over a year ago the US aim was to dismantle supply management entirely, and Canada did not let that happen.

Some of the areas that are changed actually incorporate elements on North American trade from the TPP, which was negotiated under President Barack Obama. This pretty much means that US drug companies will now be able to sell pharmaceuticals in Canada for 10 years before facing generic competition. The president said his administration had not yet agreed to lift tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada, a contentious issue between the two neighbors. Quebec voters will elect a new government on Monday, with all parties saying the new trade deal could not touch Canada’s dairy market. Canada’s concessions will total 3.59 percent, according to Wiens.

Chapter 11 is eliminated entirely for Canada and mostly for Mexico, except for some key industries like energy and telecommunications.

Mr Trump’s most senior officials vowed to use the deal, which they hope will help to revive America’s industrial and agricultural heartlands, as a template for all future trade agreements. With more American products on store shelves, demand for Canadian dairy products will fall and some domestic processing and expansion projects may be scaled back, he said.

On the flip side of Canada’s more open dairy market, the country’s own farmers may be negatively affected. Canada has a complex milk and dairy system.

The agreement would shield the first 2.6 million Canadian vehicle exports to the USA from any tariffs.

“This deadline was real”, according to a senior USA official.

But Canada has been obliged to make concessions, in particular allowing United States dairy farmers access to about 3.5 percent of its $16 billion (13.8€ billion) domestic market.

Premier Doug Ford said Monday that he was concerned farmers have been “thrown under the bus” by the federal government in the new three-country agreement.

Who is the biggest victor of the new trade pact?

Another element of the deal will exempt Mexican and Canadian cars from any future United States automotive tariffs up to certain import quotas.

But trade news looked unlikely to affect people’s votes, said Pierre Martin, a political scientist at the University of Montreal.

“It’s a great win for the president and a validation for his strategy in the area of worldwide trade”, a senior Trump administration official said.

Trudeau, standing next to Freeland, said he planned to continue to have a “constructive” relationship with the president.

At first glance, it looks as if the “modernization” aspects of the agreement are as good as or slightly better than what was in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a proposed deal that collapsed after a U.S. withdrawal under President Trump.