Donald Trump declares USMCA with Mexico, Canada as replacement of NAFTA, calls it 'great deal' for all three countries

Washington: US President Donald Trump on Monday declared a new trade agreement with neighbouring Mexico and Canada and declared the agreement to be “a great deal” for all three countries and said the pact brings an end to the previous North American Free Trade Agreement or NAFTA. The US, Mexico, and Canada Agreement or USMCA, a jubilant Trump told reporters at the White House, would revive the manufacturing sector in the US and create hundreds and thousands of jobs in America. This will create high-quality jobs and strictly enforce rule of origin requirement, he added. [caption id=“attachment_5299141” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File photo of US president Donald Trump. AP[/caption] The new trade agreement, Trump asserted, would usher in a new dawn for the country’s auto industry and transform North America into a manufacturing powerhouse and allow US to reclaim the supply chain that went out off-shores. He said this will help manufacturing of the pharmaceutical sectors. Instead of jobs leaving overseas, it will return to the United States in big numbers. This is a truly extraordinary agreement for the US, Canada and Mexico, Trump added. Before addressing the media, Trump spoke over phone with the leaders of Mexico and Canada. He said he hoped to sign it in November. “Once approved by Congress, this new deal will be the most modern, up-to-date and balanced trade agreement in the history of our country, with the most advanced protections for workers ever developed,” Trump told reporters. Describing the pact as a great deal for the three countries, Trump said it puts them in a position that they have never been in before. “It’s very good when you look at the world and what the world is doing, and what — when you look at the unfair trade practices that countries are using against the United States. This is a terrific deal for all of us,” he said. Trump said that it will be the most advanced trade deal in the world, with ambitious provisions on the digital economy, patents, financial services and other areas where the United States has a strong competitive advantage. “Mexico and Canada have agreed to strong new labour protections, environmental protections and new protections for intellectual property,” he said, adding that this new deal is an especially great victory for US farmers. Trump said USMCA also terminates and replaces NAFTA trade agreement. The new agreement, he said, will support many hundreds of thousands of American jobs. “This is also a historic win for American manufacturers and American autoworkers, who have been treated so badly. We’ve lost so many jobs over the years under NAFTA,” he said. Under NAFTA, he alleged, foreign companies have been allowed to manufacture many of their parts overseas, ship them to Mexico and Canada for assembling, and send their foreign-made cars into the US with no tax. “So, we let all our people go, we fire everybody, they make cars, they make products, they make everything in another country, they send them into the United States, no tax. And the cost is very little difference, sometimes it’s more for those people that like to talk about cost,” he said. “With this agreement, we are closing all of these terrible loopholes. They’re closed. They’re gone. They were a disaster,” he said. “This deal will also impose new standards requiring at least 75 percent of every automobile to be made in North America in order to qualify for the privilege of free access to our markets. That’s what it is, it’s a privilege. We don’t take it as a privilege. We don’t take it as a privilege. It’s a privilege for them to do business with us,” he said. “I am not talking about Mexico. I’m talking about everybody. It’s a privilege for China to do business with us. It’s a privilege for the European Union, who has treated us very badly, but that’s coming along, to do business with us. Japan, every country, it’s a privilege for them to come in and attack the piggy bank,” he added. “In this (deal), we will have a result of much more happening right here in the United States. It means, more than anything else, far more American jobs. And these are high-quality jobs. There are also strong provisions to enforce what’s called the rules of origin requirements. This will incentivize billions of dollars in new purchases of US-made automobiles,” Trump added.