Today, we turn the page on NAFTA
This morning from the Rose Garden, President Donald J. Trump unveiled a modernized, rebalanced trade deal with Canada and Mexico—keeping one of the signature promises of his 2016 campaign.
In a stark contrast from the outdated NAFTA, nearly a quarter-century old, the new United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA) protects American workers, farmers, ranchers, and businesses. For years, politicians on both sides of the aisle have called for a renegotiation of NAFTA, but President Trump is following through where others have failed time and time again.
In negotiating terms for USMCA, President Trump secured a number of big wins:
- American auto manufacturers and workers will benefit from new rules of origin that require 75 percent of auto content to be produced in North America—incentivizing billions of dollars in additional U.S. auto parts production.
- The USMCA scores a big win for American farmers by eliminating Canada’s “Class 7” program, which allowed others to undersell American dairy products. Canada will provide new access for U.S. dairy products, eggs, and poultry.
- USMCA’s labor chapter represents the strongest labor provisions of any trade agreement in our country, all of which are fully enforceable.
USMCA brings our trade relationship with Canada and Mexico into the 21st century. NAFTA failed repeatedly to keep up with the fast-changing American economy: The old rules helped incentivize offshoring, leading far too many manufacturing jobs to leave our country. The new agreement includes a modernized, high-standard chapter that provides strong protection and enforcement of U.S. intellectual property rights.
The First Lady takes ‘Be Best’ to Africa
First Lady Melania Trump departed this afternoon for Africa, her first major solo international trip as First Lady, taking her “Be Best” message to the nations of Ghana, Malawi, Kenya, and Egypt this week.
Since the launch of Be Best this spring, Mrs. Trump has met with children all over the world, bringing attention to the three pillars of well-being, social media use, and opioid abuse. During this week’s trip, the First Lady will focus on maternal and newborn care in hospitals, education for children, and the deep culture and history that is woven into each African country she’ll visit.
“Whether it is education, drug addiction, hunger, online safety or bullying, poverty or disease, it is too often children who are hit first, and hardest, across the globe,” the First Lady said when announcing the trip. “Each of us hails from a country with its own unique challenges, but I know in my heart we are united by our commitment to raising the next generation to be happy, healthy and morally responsible adults.”
Photo of the Day
Official White House Photo by Stephanie Chasez
President Donald J. Trump, joined by Cabinet members, legislators and senior White House advisers, announces completion of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement during a press conference in the Rose Garden of the White House | October 1, 2018
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U.S. Reaches Trade Deal with Canada and Mexico
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“Trade ministers from the U.S., Mexico and Canada have reached a deal to revamp the North American Free Trade Agreement, the Trump administration announced late Sunday night,” Politico reports.
“The new pact, which is being called the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, is a major step toward completing one of Trump’s signature campaign promises.”
“President Trump on Monday praised Canada for joining the U.S. and Mexico in a new trilateral trade agreement that will replace NAFTA,” Pete Kasperowicz reports in the Washington Examiner. “Late last night, our deadline, we reached a wonderful new Trade Deal with Canada, to be added into the deal already reached with Mexico,” President Trump tweeted. The President also added that “the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, is an ‘historic transaction!’”
“First lady Melania Trump heads for Africa on her first big solo international trip, aiming to make child well-being the focus of a five-day, four-country tour that will take her to every corner of the vast and impoverished continent,” Darlene Superville reports for The Associated Press. “Departing on Monday, she opens her first-ever visit to Africa on Tuesday in Ghana in the West, followed by stops in Malawi in the South, Kenya in the East and Egypt in the Northeast.”
“The Trump administration’s top officials last week unleashed a full-court rhetorical press at the United Nations against Iran — and, more important, against Tehran’s enablers, who are working hard to undermine Washington’s reimposed sanctions regime,” the New York Post editorial board writes. “Team Trump has made its meaning clear: It intends to keep Iran from acquiring nukes, and — unlike his predecessor — means to curtail its rogue behavior.”
“The Trump administration is putting America and Americans first by calling on China to live up to its pledge when it joined the World Trade Organization in 2001 to provide greater economic openness and to compete on a level playing field,” U.S. Ambassador to China Terry Branstad writes in the Des Moines Register. “Instead, China has failed to fully embrace the open, market-oriented principles that the United States champions.”
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