President Trump on Monday hailed the major revisions he was able to extract from Canada and Mexico to the 25-year-old North American trade agreement, as business executives, labor leaders, and lawmakers began poring over details.
Speaking at a Rose Garden news conference, Trump called the pact that would replace the North American Free Trade Agreement “the most important trade deal we’ve ever made by far.”
“We have succesfully completed negotiations on a brand new deal to terminate and replace NAFTA and the NAFTA trade agreements with an incredible new U.S.-Canada-Mexico agreement,” Trump said, pledging that “it will transform North America back into a manufacturing powerhouse.” Trump went on: “Throughout the campaign I promised to renegotiate NAFTA and today we have kept that promise.”
The White House, as well as leaders from Canada and Mexico, announced they had inked the deal late Sunday after Canada’s 11th hour agreement. But congressional approval is uncertain, particularly if Democrats retake control of the House in the November midterm elections.
Trump was able to force Canada and Mexico to make major concessions from their initial position, but in the end the White House pulled back from some of its most stringent demands, including the possibility of ending a three-nation trade pact entirely.