Tag Archives: North American free trade deal

‘There’s a deal:’ Mexico says USMCA trade pact to be signed Tuesday

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Canada, Mexico and the United States have reached an agreement on a new North American free trade deal and they will sign it on Tuesday, but the pact still needs the approval of U.S. and Canadian lawmakers, Mexico’s president said.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said the three countries had agreed on tweaks to labor, steel and aluminum provisions in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), after U.S. Democrats pressed for changes, particularly to strengthen enforcement of new Mexican labor laws.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland and U.S: White House adviser Jared Kushner will take part in the signing ceremony at 1200 (1300 ET), a senior Mexican official said on Twitter.”On our end, there is now a deal. We’re convinced that it’s a good deal for Mexico, just as it is for Canada and United States,” Lopez Obrador said, adding that the signing would happen in Mexico’s historic National Palace.

“In the case of the United States, there’s a deal from the government, but we need Congress to ratify it,” Lopez Obrador said.

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who will hold a news conference on Tuesday morning, has said the deal is close to being finalized.

(Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon and Abraham Gonzalez, Editing by Frank Jack Daniel)

New North American trade deal would boost U.S. economy, U.S. commission finds

FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump, Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto sign documents during the USMCA signing ceremony before the G20 leaders summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina November 30, 2018. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo

(Reuters) – The U.S. International Trade Commission estimated the proposed new North American free trade deal would modestly boost the U.S. economy but could reduce U.S. vehicle production.

The economic assessment of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, released on Thursday, said the trade deal would increase U.S. real gross domestic product by 0.35 percent, or $68.5 billion, on an annual basis and add 176,000 U.S. jobs, while raising U.S. exports.

The report’s estimates are for year six of the trade deal, once it is fully implemented.

Auto industry employment would rise by 30,000 jobs for parts and engine production, but U.S. vehicle production would decline in and U.S. vehicle consumption would be reduced by 140,000 units because of higher prices, or 1.25 percent of 2017 sales, the report said.

The report may give ammunition to opponents of the deal. The leaders of the three countries approved the deal last year, but it still must be approved by the U.S. Congress. The deal is a replacement for the more than two-decade-old North American Free Trade Agreement.

The auto industry had been a key focus of the deal for the Trump administration.

The report also found that 1,500 U.S. vehicle manufacturing jobs would be lost and the price of new U.S. vehicles would rise from 0.4 percent for pickup trucks to 1.6 percent for small cars.

Some automakers may decide “not to offer vehicles that would be too expensive to bring into compliance, which would ultimately decrease consumer choice,” the report said.

President Donald Trump has touted the deal as boosting the U.S. auto industry employment, which could be a key 2020 campaign issue in some battleground states. In February, he said at his State of the Union address that the deal would “ensure that more cars are proudly stamped with our four beautiful words, ‘Made in the USA.'”

(Reporting by David Shepardson, David Lawder and Chris Prentice; Editing by Leslie Adler)