Trump Clinches Rebranded Nafta as Canada Joins Pact With Mexico
Channel: All News
Date: 2018-10-01

U.S. President Donald Trump is set to sign a successor to the North American Free Trade Agreement that will make modest revisions to a deal he once called a “disaster,” easing uncertainty for companies reliant on tariff-free commerce.

U.S. and Canadian negotiators worked around the clock this weekend to secure an agreement just before a Sunday midnight deadline, allowing leaders from those nations and Mexico to sign the accord by late November. The 24-year-old Nafta will now be superseded by the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, covering a region that trades more than $1 trillion annually.

“It is a great deal for all three countries,” Trump wrote on Twitter Monday. He added in another tweet that it solves the many “deficiencies and mistakes in NAFTA, greatly opens markets to our Farmers and Manufacturers, reduce Trade Barriers to the U.S. and will bring all three Great Nations closer together in competition with the rest of the world.”

The deal caps a turbulent period for relations between the U.S. and Canada, traditionally close allies on national security and trade. The alliance was severely tested by Trump’s aggressive negotiating style and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s willingness to stand his ground on key issues such as dairy and dispute settlement.

U.S. equity futures, Canada’s dollar and Mexico’s peso all gained on the news. The loonie climbed to its strongest since May against the greenback, while the Mexican peso rose as much as 1 percent.