President Trump signed the US-Mexico-Canda Trade Agreement (USMCA) into law at a signing ceremony at the White House, a trade deal that he promised when campaigning to deliver on to replace what he says was a failing North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
At the ceremony, President Trump said that he is now officially ending the NAFTA “nightmare” and said the USMCA was a major win for American laborers as well as other countries. Some of the trade deal’s major highlights are its incentives for car production in the United States, the opening up of Canadian markets for American dairy products in return for the US providing more access for Canadian sugar and dairy, and new rules that will help level the playing field between American and Mexican workers. It also extends the rights of intellectual property from 50 years to 70 years, and that new automobiles must have at least 75% of their components manufactured in the US, Canada or Mexico.
The USMCA, which replaces the 25-year old, trillion-dollar NAFTA trade agreement has a “sunset” clause, in which the terms of the current agreement expire, after 16 years.
RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel tweeted about the agreement, “While Democrats continue their impeachment charade, @realDonaldTrump is delivering on a major campaign promise today: Renegotiating bad trade deals. We are replacing NAFTA with #USMCA, which will create 176,000 new jobs and add $68.2 Billion to our economy!”