In contesting for a glorious future for the US industry, the US President Donald Trump signed the North American Trade Pact with Mexico and Canada under the USMCA agreement. The introduction of this trade agreement will end the 26-year-old NAFTA or the North American Free Trade Agreement. Trump blamed NAFTA for the decline of manufacturing jobs in the US and also tagged the 1994 pact to be the “worst deal.” The new USMCA agreement is expected to revamp the existing NAFTA agreement by providing more security to both the workers and the digital economy, expanding the markets for American farmers and also by implementing new rules to boost up auto manufacturing in North America.
Commenting on signing this new agreement in the White House on Wednesday, Trump said,
Today we are finally ending the NAFTA nightmare and signing into law the brand-new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. For the first time in American history, we have replaced a disastrous trade deal that rewarded outsourcing with a truly fair and reciprocal trade deal that will keep jobs, wealth and growth right here in America.
The signing ceremony in the White House was attended by 400 guests that included lawmakers, farmers, officials, and chief executives from all across Mexico and Canada. However, the key Democrats who negotiated with Trump’s administrations for expanding the pact’s labor and environmental enforcement provisions were left out in the signing ceremony. In fact, he did not even mention the work done by the various democrats on the new trade pact.
Some analysts believe that Trump left the key Democrats out from the signing ceremony to avoid questions regarding his impeachment trial, where he has been fighting allegation for obstructing Congress.
Many of the US analysts believe that the new USMCA agreement will retain some of the original NAFTA provisions, which undoubtedly increased the standard of living of the North Americans, by creating a free-trade zone in North America. However, the new rules under USMCA have promised to bring in a new set of rules for auto manufacturing in North America, thereby boosting up the auto manufacturing jobs in the US.
