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President Donald Trump touted his new trilateral trade deal Monday at a White House press conference, saying “We’re going to transform North America into a manufacturing power house.”
The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, finalized late on Sunday, will replace the North American Free Trade Agreement, which dates back to 1994 and covers $1.2 trillion in trade.
“Throughout the campaign, I promised to renegotiate NAFTA, and today we have kept that promise,” Trump said during the Rose Garden briefing.
The revised trade agreement addresses wide areas of the economy, ranging from patents and financial services to farming and auto manufacturing. It will give American farmers greater access to Mexican and Canadian markets, said Trump, and requires at least 75 percent of every automobile be made in America.
“Without tariffs we wouldn’t be talking about a deal,” added Trump, addressing “those babies who keep talking about tariffs.”
The president called the new agreement “the most modern, up-to-date, and balanced” trade deal in American history, adding that it offers “the most advanced protections for workers ever developed.”
The stock market cheered the new trade pact, with the Dow Jones soaring by 260 points in morning trading.
The USMCA treaty will need to be signed by all three nations and is set to be sent to Congress by the end of November.