Donald Trump lauds ‘historic’ NAFTA replacement deal

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.

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. “Because business desperately needs certainty and uncertainty is anathema to getting things done”.

But 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.

“This a victory for Canada because that amount is actually well above what we now send south of the border”.

But analysts say the new agreement isn’t too different from the original NAFTA deal.

Jared Bernstein, formerly Vice President Joe Biden’s top economic adviser, said he likes some of the pro-labor changes in the new deal, but added that Trump’s characterization of the agreement as a dramatic change from NAFTA is absurd.

Tariffs remain “until such time as we can do something that would be different, like quotas, perhaps, so that our industry is protected”, Trump said.

The office of the U.S. Trade Representative boasted that the deal would provide “new protections for U.S. intellectual property”, which the U.S. had been seeking.

Autos, which Trump deemed the “mother lode” in the negotiations with Canada, avoid what Horizon Investment chief global strategist Greg Valliere called a “disastrous” 25% tariff.

“When we began the work of updating NAFTA, we kept our focus to what really matters”, he said.

Under the old rules, Canada’s limit was $20 That’s much less than what the US allows, a discrepancy that American trade officials were pressuring Canada to fix. “The producers want to produce milk”, said Les Producteurs de lait du Québec president Bruno Letendre.

“We care much more about the $40 number than we do about the $150 number”, Littler said. “There’s no doubt about that”.

“These measures will support many – hundreds of thousands – American jobs”, he said at a news conference at the White House.

“The Americans are very, very concerned about bringing their steel manufacturing back into their country, so (the tariffs on Canada are) emblematic of a number of other arrangements that they have with other countries as well”, Kergin said.

Additionally, while speaking to reporters, Trump said that USMCA, which “has a good ring to it”, is about fairness and reciprocity.

The breakthrough came on Sunday evening as the negotiating parties agreed on key elements of the revised trade agreement, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported, citing a senior source with direct knowledge of the talks.

Normal trade agreements take that leverage off the table.

Trump said the new framework will encourage United States companies to hire at home, rather than look overseas.

“At a minimum we haven’t lost any ground”.

“I think it’s fair to do it to me”, Trump said.

While the S&P 500 was holding onto a gain of 0.5% at midday, the iShares MSCI Canada ETF (EWC) was up 1.1% while the iShares MSCI Mexico Capped ETF (EWW) was trading higher by 0.9%.

President Donald Trump portrayed it as a groundbreaking pact.

Andrea Stairs, eBay’s general manager for Canada and Latin America, told CTV News, “At this point, there seem to be many open questions and it is unclear whether Canadian consumers will meaningfully benefit from this change, or whether small businesses will see improved competitiveness and predictability”.

The US appears to be willing to give up demands to drop independent dispute resolution panels if it can have greater access to the Canadian dairy market.