NAFTA Remains after USA and Canada Closes the Deal
Just before the deadline given by Donald Trump, both parties finally reach the conclusion of NAFTA, creating a trilateral trade pact along with Mexico.
On Sunday, September 30, 2018, the United States and Canada reached a deal to salvage NAFTA as a trilateral pact along with Mexico and agreements to substantially boost American access to Canada’s dairy market and protect Canada from possible U.S. auto tariffs.
“USMCA (US-Canada-Mexico Agreement) will give our workers, farmers, ranchers and businesses a high-standard trade agreement that will result in freer markets, fairer trade and robust economic growth in our region. It will strengthen the middle class, and create good, well-paying jobs and new opportunities for the nearly half billion people who call North America home,” quoted from the statement after the agreement had been reached.
Canada had agreed to provide U.S. dairy farmers access to about 3.5% of its approximately $16 billion annual domestic dairy market, raising quotas on the amount of US dairy that can come into the country and eliminating a pricing system that made it more difficult for US farmers to enter the market.
Canada also agreed to a quota of 2.6 million tariff-free vehicles exported to the United States above current production levels of about 2 million units.
However, the case of U.S. tariffs on Canada’s steel and aluminum exports remaining unresolved.