In the years following NAFTA, trade between the United States and its North American neighbours has more than tripled and grown faster than U.S. trade with the rest of the world. Canada and Mexico are the two largest destinations for U.S. exports and account for more than one-third of the total. Most estimates [PDF] conclude that the agreement has increased U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) by less than 0.5 percent, which, when fully implemented, allows the U.S. economy to grow by up to $80 billion, or several billion dollars of additional growth per year. Nevertheless, NAFTA was an ongoing objective in the broader free trade debate. President Donald J. Trump says he has hurt jobs and production in the United States, and in December 2019, his administration finalized an updated version of the pact with Canada and Mexico, now known as the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). The USMCA won broad bipartisan support on Capitol Hill and went into effect on July 1, 2020.
On December 19, the USMCA passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 385 to 41. About a month later, the Senate overwhelmingly approved the USMCA by an overwhelming majority of 89 to 10. The USMCA Annex 23-A calls on Mexico to pass laws that improve unions` ability to negotiate. [44] The specific standards that Mexico must meet are contained in International Labour Organization Convention 98 on Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining. The government of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador introduced a law in late 2018 to meet these international standards. Canada ratified the agreement in March and the USMCA entered into force on July 1, 2020. Although NAFTA is officially dead, governments and businesses are still adapting to the new rules, especially the new labor rules. The coronavirus could also complicate implementation, as manufacturers will adapt to new guidelines in the midst of a global economic crisis. One of the key elements of the agreement was the removal of tariffs, the removal of many non-tariff barriers to trade, and one of the first trade agreements dealing with trade in services.
It also contained a dispute settlement mechanism for the fair and expeditious settlement of trade disputes. The provisions of the agreement cover a wide range of agricultural products, homelessness, manufactured goods, working conditions, digital trade and others. Among the most important aspects of the agreement are better access for U.S. dairy farmers to the Canadian market, guidelines for a greater proportion of automobiles produced in the three countries instead of being imported from other countries, and the maintenance of the dispute settlement system, similar to that contained in NAFTA. [35] [38] In order to facilitate the marketing of food and agricultural products, Mexico and the United States have agreed that classification standards and services for all agricultural products are not discriminatory and that a dialogue will be established to discuss quality classification and trade issues. The U.S. Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) is a trade agreement between these parties. The USMCA replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). During his election campaign and presidency in 2016, Trump was highly critical of NAFTA (often seen as “perhaps the worst deal ever made”) [105] and hailed USMCA as “a great deal for all of us.” [106] However, the USMCA is very similar to NAFTA, having transferred many of the same provisions and making only modest amendments, most often cosmetic,[107] and is expected to have little economic impact.
[108] Former U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor, who oversaw the signing of NAFTA under the Bill Clinton administration, said, “This is really the original NAFTA.” [109] The agreement is mentioned differently by each signatory – in the United States, it is called the Agreement between the United States, Mexico and Canada (USMCA). [1] [23] In Canada, it is officially known as the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) in English[24] and the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) in French; [25] and in Mexico, tratado entre México, Estados Unidos y Canadá (T-MEC) is called. [26] [27] The agreement is sometimes referred to as “New NAFTA”[28][29], in line with the previous trilateral agreement intended to replace it, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). . . .