The deal that Trump couldn't do - but he did

[jimnyc]

NAFTA, and renegotiating with Canada and Mexico. Couldn't be done, Trump will screw things up, blah blah blah and all from pundits and media crap, and some Dem leaders of course. Goodbye NAFTA and hello to USMCA

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Trump scores NAFTA deal after last minute negotiations with Canada

--The United States reached a trade deal with Mexico and Canada late Sunday night, providing Trump a crucial win as he has long promised to renegotiate the pact.
--All three countries voiced support for the new deal, called the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA.
--The USMCA is expected to be formally signed in late November.

U.S. President Donald Trump came closer to fulfilling a campaign promise late Sunday night as he reached a revamped trade deal with Canada and Mexico that will rework the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) after months of negotiations.

Hours before Sunday’s midnight deadline proposed by the U.S., Canada agreed to sign on to the newly named United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, which will give the U.S. greater access to Canada’s dairy markets as well as require a larger percentage of cars to be manufactured in North America.

The deal will also include increased protections for workers in the U.S. and Canada.

“Mexico and Canada have agreed to strong new labor protections, environmental protections and new protections for intellectual property,” Trump said at a press conference Monday. “This new deal is an especially great victory for our farmers.”

“For example, we [will] require a large portion of every car to be made by high-wage workers, which will greatly reduce foreign outsourcing which was tremendous problem,” he said. “More automobiles and parts will be manufactured inside the United States. We will be manufacturing many more cars and our companies won’t be leaving the United States, firing their workers and building their cars elsewhere.”

Trump, who has long advocated to renegotiate the deal, which involves nearly $1 trillion in trade annually, according to Bloomberg, called the deal “wonderful.”

“It is a great deal for all three countries,” Trump wrote on Twitter.

http://www.dpimagehosting.com/images/2018/10/01/PKBqCPL.png

Rest - http://dailycaller.com/2018/10/01/trump-nafta-canada-deal/

[jimnyc]

Oh, and did I forget to mention that this is YET ANOTHER KEPT PROMISE by Trump? Well, unless someone, *cough* Democrats, somehow obstruct this in congress.

Yup, the hits just keep coming!

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U.S. reaches trade deal with Canada and Mexico, providing Trump a crucial win

The new pact is a major step toward completing one of the president's signature campaign promises.

Trade ministers from the U.S., Mexico and Canada have reached a deal to revamp the North American Free Trade Agreement, the Trump administration announced late Sunday night.

The new pact, which is being called the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, is a major step toward completing one of Trump’s signature campaign promises and gives the president a concrete policy win to tout on the campaign trail this fall. It also sets the stage for what is sure to be a high-stakes fight to get the agreement passed by Congress before it can become law.

The Trump administration already formally notified Congress at the end of August of its plans to sign a new pact and faced a deadline of the end of September to provide a draft of the agreement.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in late August that officials are planning to sign with their Canadian and Mexican counterparts by the end of November — a date that would also satisfy Mexico, which is eager to have current President Enrique Peña Nieto sign the deal before his successor takes over Dec. 1.

“It’s a great win for the president and a validation for his strategy in the area of international trade,” a senior administration official said on a call with reporters late Sunday.

People briefed on the outlines of a revamped deal described changes in language governing dairy imports, dispute resolution between countries, limits on online shopping that can be done tax free, and limits on the U.S. threat of auto tariffs.

“It’s a good day for Canada,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said as he left the office late Sunday night. He said he would save other comments for an official announcement on Monday.

A formal vote in Congress won’t be held until 2019, and it is still an open question whether lawmakers — including members of the president's own party who have often clashed with him on trade — will fall in line to support the deal.

Rest - https://www.politico.com/story/2018/09/30/nafta-trade-canada-819081

[Elessar]

It was a decades-long problem that needed to be solved; no offense to
our Northern Neighbors.

Southern Neighbors, I am still leery of.

[Russ]

This is a major accomplishment. I wasn't a big Trump fan all along, but he is convincing me.

[pete311]

Anyone got a link explaining how it's better than the previous agreement?

[Gunny]

NAFTA, and renegotiating with Canada and Mexico. Couldn't be done, Trump will screw things up, blah blah blah and all from pundits and media crap, and some Dem leaders of course. Goodbye NAFTA and hello to USMCA

---

Trump scores NAFTA deal after last minute negotiations with Canada

--The United States reached a trade deal with Mexico and Canada late Sunday night, providing Trump a crucial win as he has long promised to renegotiate the pact.
--All three countries voiced support for the new deal, called the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA.
--The USMCA is expected to be formally signed in late November.

U.S. President Donald Trump came closer to fulfilling a campaign promise late Sunday night as he reached a revamped trade deal with Canada and Mexico that will rework the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) after months of negotiations.

Hours before Sunday’s midnight deadline proposed by the U.S., Canada agreed to sign on to the newly named United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, which will give the U.S. greater access to Canada’s dairy markets as well as require a larger percentage of cars to be manufactured in North America.

The deal will also include increased protections for workers in the U.S. and Canada.

“Mexico and Canada have agreed to strong new labor protections, environmental protections and new protections for intellectual property,” Trump said at a press conference Monday. “This new deal is an especially great victory for our farmers.”

“For example, we [will] require a large portion of every car to be made by high-wage workers, which will greatly reduce foreign outsourcing which was tremendous problem,” he said. “More automobiles and parts will be manufactured inside the United States. We will be manufacturing many more cars and our companies won’t be leaving the United States, firing their workers and building their cars elsewhere.”

Trump, who has long advocated to renegotiate the deal, which involves nearly $1 trillion in trade annually, according to Bloomberg, called the deal “wonderful.”

“It is a great deal for all three countries,” Trump wrote on Twitter.

http://www.dpimagehosting.com/images/2018/10/01/PKBqCPL.png

Rest - http://dailycaller.com/2018/10/01/trump-nafta-canada-deal/

The need a new name. I DEFINITELY oppose the "USMC--" portion of their acronym. They need to go earn their own :drillsarge:

[Gunny]

Anyone got a link explaining how it's better than the previous agreement?When you provide one some of us will be sure and read it. Do your own footwork.

[pete311]

Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley declares that if Dems win the House, the GOP will force a vote on the trade deal in the lame-duck session after the election -- which he says is fine because "95% of what we will be voting on is the same as NAFTA."

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-02/gop-to-seek-trade-bill-vote-this-year-if-democrats-win-house

Congrats on that massive 5% different trade deal!

[Elessar]

I don't read it the same. Even the AP is favorable:

https://apnews.com/cc73fafd36a647caa896b1b78f8b4c8a

[jimnyc]

Trump Just Ripped Up Nafta. Here’s What’s in the New Deal.

Changes for automakers, dairy farmers, labor unions and large corporations headline the renegotiated U.S.M.C.A., which is poised to replace Nafta.

There’s a lot to digest in the new trade agreement that the United States, Mexico and Canada finalized in deadline-beating fashion on Sunday, starting with a name change: If the new deal is adopted by all three countries, the North American Free Trade Agreement will give way to the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement or U.S.M.C.A.

It’s a cosmetic change for an otherwise consequential set of revisions.

“It’s not Nafta redone, it’s a brand-new deal,” President Trump said at the White House on Monday.

Text of the pact, released late Sunday, includes major adjustments in several key areas of the countries’ trading relationships. The agreement sets new rules for automobile production, meant to incentivize production of cars and trucks in countries that pay higher wages. It reduces barriers for American dairy farmers to sell cheese, milk and other products to Canada. It retains a tribunal for resolving trade disputes that the United States had sought to eliminate.

It guarantees Canadian and Mexican manufacturers expanded access to some large American markets, such as cars and light trucks, but leaves lingering questions about their ability to avoid tariffs on steel and aluminum exports to the United States.

Here are highlights from the text of the agreement, and from the 12 “side letters” the negotiating countries filed alongside it.

An attempt to steer more car production to the United States

Nafta required automakers to produce 62.5 percent of a vehicle’s content in North America to qualify for zero tariffs. The new agreement raises that threshold, over time, to 75 percent. That’s meant to force automakers to source fewer parts for an “Assembled in Mexico” (or Canada) car from Germany, Japan, South Korea or China.

For the first time, the new agreement also mandates that an escalating percentage of parts for any tariff-free vehicle — topping out at 40 percent in 2023 — must come from a so-called “high wage” factory. The agreement says those factories must pay a minimum of $16 an hour in average salaries for production workers. That’s about triple the average wage in a Mexican factory right now, and administration officials hope the provision will force automakers to shift suppliers from Mexico to Canada or the United States.

There are risks to that change. Automotive analysts have warned that the provision could have a damaging effect for Americans, by raising costs for American car buyers and incentivizing automakers to move production to low-cost countries outside the United States, such as China.

Conversely, the final provision, as written, could prove relatively ineffective at shifting production — because it is not indexed to inflation. An average wage of $16 an hour will be less constraining in 2023 dollars than it is today.

Relief from future auto tariffs for Canada and Mexico

Mr. Trump has repeatedly threatened, over the last year, to impose tariffs on imported automobiles. In a news conference last week, he suggested that Canada would face such tariffs if it did not reach agreement with the United States on a new trade deal. Mr. Trump’s administration has undertaken an investigation that could lead to auto tariffs, but it appears unlikely to finish up any time soon. The threat of auto tariffs has clouded trade talks with several countries, including Japan and South Korea, which import cars and car parts into America.

Canada and Mexico won’t have to sweat it, though. The new agreement includes side letters that grant exemptions from any future American tariffs to 2.6 million imported passenger vehicles from each of those countries. That’s slightly more vehicles than Mexico has exported to the United States over the last year, and nearly 1 million more than Canada has exported.

Wins for American cheese (and wine)

Perhaps the biggest sticking point in negotiations over the last month was the issue of Canada’s protection of its dairy market, including limits on imported dairy products from the United States and government support that gives Canadian products an advantage on international markets against American ones.

“Dairy was a deal breaker,” Mr. Trump said on Monday.

The new agreement gives the United States victories on both fronts. It gradually opens the Canadian market to more exported American dairy products, including “fluid milk, cream, butter, skim milk powder, cheese and other dairy products.” Canada agreed to eliminate a program that helps Canadian sellers of certain milk products, at home and abroad.

It also creates a list of cheese names that Mexico and the United States agree can be marketed without restriction in their respective countries, and it forces grocery stores in British Columbia to stop their practice of selling British Columbia-only wines on certain shelves, and stock American wines alongside them.

A win for Canada on dispute resolution

Trade agreements typically come with enforcement mechanisms. As part of its renegotiation efforts, the United States sought to eliminate one of those mechanisms in Nafta: the so-called Chapter 19 provision, which gives the three countries a sort of neutral playing site — a panel with representatives from each country — to challenge each other’s impositions of tariffs, and other actions.

Canada won the fight to keep that provision in the revised agreement. It did agree to eliminate another form of enforcement between the United States and Canada, which allows investors to sue for relief from foreign countries’ actions. Consumer groups have long criticized that resolution mechanism, contending it allows large corporations too much power to challenge environmental and other regulations. The new deal leaves that mechanism in place for disputes between the United States and Mexico, but not for Canada.

Goodies for unions, banks and pharmaceutical companies

Among the small-but-significant items in the new agreement are a measure to push Mexico to make it easier for workers to form and join labor unions, steps to allow American financial services companies better access to Canadian and Mexican markets and a provision to extend the intellectual property protections of American pharmaceutical companies selling prescription drugs in Canada.

That last provision will grant longer protections to American biologic drugs, against biosimilar competitors, and it will probably raise the profits of those drugmakers when they sell in Canada.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/01/business/trump-nafta-usmca-differences.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

[Abbey Marie]

I’ll admit that I never realized how good it could be to have an accomplished businessman in the WH.