New NAFTA Name Has a ‘Good Ring to It’

Wiens said the United States-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) agreement further opens up Canada’s dairy industry to US farmers. It replaces the 24-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement, of NAFTA, which President Donald Trump had called a job-killing disaster.

He said market access – Canada’s supply management system rigidly controls foreign exports to the Canadian market – has suffered significant hits in a series of recent trade deals.

The agreement will benefit farmers, ranchers and automobile workers, Trump said.

“This is a truly extraordinary agreement for the United States, Canada and Mexico”, Trump said in the Rose Garden, surrounded by his trade-negotiating team. “It will strengthen the middle class, and create good, well-paying jobs and new opportunities for the almost half billion people who call North America home”.

Trump campaigned in OH during the 2016 presidential race advocating for a renegotiated NAFTA deal.

Trump complained about the behavior of Canadian officials, and said he rejected a meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, although Trudeau’s office said no meeting was planned. Businesses, the corn lobby, automakers and even dairy farmers cheered the pact as a real step forward in stabilizing the outlook for trade among the U.S., Mexico and Canada. “That’s the motherlode, that’s the big one”, U.S. President Donald Trump said last week during his explosive news conference on the margins of the UN General Assembly in NY.

That could mean more jobs, more auto production, more distribution from and through Northwest Ohio.

Juan Carlos Baker, Mexico’s under secretary of foreign trade, is expected to present the details of the agreement to the Mexican senate, according to the Times. NAFTA underpinned $1.2 trillion in trade between the three countries. This is generally a much easier process than trying to challenge a trade practice in a U.S. court.

The Trump administration had imposed a midnight Sunday deadline for Trudeau’s government to reach agreement on an updated NAFTA or face exclusion from the treaty.

The deal largely keeps the framework of NAFTA intact, with some changes.

“They’re obviously concerned about the continuing erosion of our marketplace and the true loss of revenue and income”, he said.

Trump had set a deadline of Sunday to get Canada to agree to a deal, after the U.S. reached an earlier bilateral agreement with Mexico, with potential to exclude Canada from NAFTA.

“If you’re on the list, its survival is very good news for you”, said Eric Miller, a trade consultant who has worked for the Canadian government and continues to advise them on the negotiations. Japan is highly integrated in Southeast Asia.

At least 40% of a auto made in North America must also be made by a worker earning at least $16 an hour, which is likely to benefit the U.S. and Canada most.

With regards to the European Union, for example, he said the White House would “respectfully” put tariffs on cars if a satisfactory deal can’t be reached.

A side letter published along with the main text of the agreement exempts a percentage of eligible auto exports from the tariffs.

The White House’s Peter Navarro said “everybody’s speaking in good faith right now as we speak”, on Fox Sunday.

“Without tariffs we wouldn’t be talking about a deal”, Mr Trump said.

News of the new trade agreement is weighing heavy on those in the Maritime dairy farming industry.

The president argued the USMCA focuses on fairness and reciprocity.

Before the USMCA is implemented, though, it must be approved by Congress.

The deal also upgrades environmental and labor regulations, meaning Mexican workers must have greater ability to unionize. A similar agreement between Mexico and the US preserves duty-free access to the USA market for vehicles that comply with the agreement’s rules of origin.

“New deal, with a new name, but aside from dairy access and some bells and whistles, hardly a major rewrite that warranted so much wasted time over a 13-month long period of negotiations”, David Rosenberg, chief economist at Toronto-based Gluskin Sheff, said in a note sent out to clients.

Mexico’s Guajardo on Monday said the new accord could be signed by the three countries’ leaders when they meet at a G20 summit in Buenos Aires in late November.

NAFTA tore down most trade barriers between the United States, Canada and Mexico, leading to a surge in trade among them.

With the September 30 deadline looming, Trudeau’s chief of staff Katie Telford, Videgaray and Kushner were in frequent phone contact over the weekend to “facilitate” Sunday’s agreement, a senior source close to the talks said.

The result included the face-saving preservation of a key trade dispute settlement mechanism sought by Canada.