Post by the Scribe on Aug 31, 2020 1:23:37 GMT
I ended the NAFTA nightmare and signed the brand-new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement into law.
President Trump’s new trade deal with Mexico and Canada passed the House and Senate with remarkably broad, bipartisan support. The agreement, called the USMCA, updates NAFTA, covering things like digital commerce, which barely existed when the original deal was signed a quarter-century ago.
But despite the president’s claims, the USMCA is mostly a cosmetic refresh of NAFTA, not a wholesale replacement.
The biggest changes affect automakers. They’ll have to include more North American parts in order to sell cars and trucks here duty-free, and a new minimum wage requirement could shift some auto production from Mexico to the United States. The agreement also includes stronger labor and environmental protections, which House Democrats insisted on. And it offers U.S. dairy farmers slightly more access to the Canadian market. On the whole, the USMCA’s economic effects are expected to be modest. The main benefit of the deal is that it avoids the disruption that would have come had Trump made good on his threat to scrap NAFTA without a replacement.
Scott Horsley
NPR Chief Economics Correspondent
President Trump’s new trade deal with Mexico and Canada passed the House and Senate with remarkably broad, bipartisan support. The agreement, called the USMCA, updates NAFTA, covering things like digital commerce, which barely existed when the original deal was signed a quarter-century ago.
But despite the president’s claims, the USMCA is mostly a cosmetic refresh of NAFTA, not a wholesale replacement.
The biggest changes affect automakers. They’ll have to include more North American parts in order to sell cars and trucks here duty-free, and a new minimum wage requirement could shift some auto production from Mexico to the United States. The agreement also includes stronger labor and environmental protections, which House Democrats insisted on. And it offers U.S. dairy farmers slightly more access to the Canadian market. On the whole, the USMCA’s economic effects are expected to be modest. The main benefit of the deal is that it avoids the disruption that would have come had Trump made good on his threat to scrap NAFTA without a replacement.
Scott Horsley
NPR Chief Economics Correspondent