Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday hailed the new trade deal reached with the United States and Mexico to substitute the trilateral North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) after more than a year of dramatic negotiations.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 01st October, 2018) Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday hailed the new trade deal reached with the United States and Mexico to substitute the trilateral North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) after more than a year of dramatic negotiations.
Earlier in the day, media reported citing sources that Canada had agreed to be a part of the new deal dubbed the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which was announced in late August by the United States and Mexico. Following the weekend of intensive talks, the sides have reportedly managed to resolve disagreements on the deal and reached arrangements, which would preserve the three-country format of the original accord.
"It's a good day for Canada," the Wall Street Journal cited Trudeau as saying.
The new deal reportedly preserves the NAFTA dispute resolution mechanism which the United States wanted to amend. The deal will also provide US farmers with wider access to the Canadian dairy market.
The deal now awaits parliamentary approval from the signatories.
US President Donald Trump has been seeking to renegotiate the United States' trade agreements with other countries, including the NAFTA deal, since his election campaign in 2016. The current NAFTA agreement has been in place since 1994. Trump has threatened to leave NAFTA if a more advantageous agreement is not negotiated by the United States, Mexico and Canada.
For over a year, the three states have been engaged in talks to modernize their trade deal. In August, Trump said that the United States and Mexico had reached an agreement in their NAFTA talks. The Trump administration has been keen to finalize the deal by December 1 before Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto leaves office, meaning that the agreement has to be introduced to Congress before October.
