According to the U.S. Trade Representative`s office, the USMCA is a “mutual benefit to Workers, Farmers, Farmers and Businesses in North America.” Nafta was aiming for the creation of a free trade area between the United States, Canada and Mexico, and the USMCA is using NAFTA as the basis for a new agreement. While the USMCA has a significant impact on trade of all kinds between the three designated nations, some of the most important provisions of the agreement are: the agreement is the result of a renegotiation between the member states of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which informally agreed to the terms of the new agreement on 30 September. 2018 and officially October 1. [10] The USMCA was proposed by U.S. President Donald Trump and signed on November 30, 2018 by Trump, Mexican President Enrique Pea Nieto and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as a secondary event of the 2018 G20 summit in Buenos Aires. A revised version was signed on December 10, 2019 and ratified by the three countries, with final ratification (Canada) taking place on March 13, 2020 just before the Canadian Parliament adjourned due to the COVID-19 pandemic. National procedures for ratifying the agreement in the United States are governed by the legislation of the Trade Promotion Authority, which is also known as the fast-track authority. Growing objections within Member States to U.S. trade policy and various aspects of the USMCA have had an impact on the signing and ratification process.

Mexico said it would not sign the USMCA if tariffs on steel and aluminum were maintained. [62] Based on the results of the November 6, 2018 U.S. election, it has been speculated that the greater power of Democrats in the House of Representatives could jeopardize the passage of the USMCA agreement. [63] [64] Bill Pascrell, a senior Democrat, argued for changes to the USMCA to pass Congress. [65] Republicans have opposed the USMCA provisions that impose labour rights on LGBTQ and pregnant workers. [66] Forty Republicans in Congress have asked Mr. Trump not to sign an agreement that includes “the unprecedented integration of sexual orientation and the language of gender identity.” As a result, Trump ultimately signed a revised version that required each nation only to “policies it deems appropriate to protect workers from discrimination in the workplace” and said the United States would not be required to introduce additional non-discrimination laws. [67] The Canadian government expressed concern about the changes that have occurred under the USMCA agreement. [68] The agreement is described differently by each signatory – in the United States, it is called the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA); [1] [23] in Canada, it is officially known as the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) in English[24] and the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (ACEUM) in French; [25] and in Mexico, tratado is called tratado between México, Estados Unidos y Canadé (T-MEC). [26] [27] The agreement is sometimes referred to as “New NAFTA”[28][29] with respect to the previous trilateral agreement for the successor, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). On May 11, 2018, House Of Representatives spokesman Paul Ryan set May 17 as the deadline for congressional action.

This deadline was not met and the agreement with Mexico was not reached until August 27, 2018. [33] At that time, Canada had not approved the agreement. Mexico`s outgoing President Enrique Pea Nieto, having left office on 1 December 2018 and requiring 60 days as a review period, the deadline for making the agreed text available was set at the end of September 2018, 30 September 2018. Negotiators worked around the clock and reached an agreement less than an hour before midnight on a draft text. The next day, October 1, 2018, the USMCA text was published as an agreed document. The USMCA is expected to have a very small impact on the economy. [108] An International Monetary Fund (IMF) discussion paper published at the end of March 2019 stated that the agreement would have a “negligible” impact on the general economy. [108] [113] The IMF study