Donald Trump touts new NAFTA replacement deal as ‘historic transaction’

AFTER more than a year of negotiations, the US has signed a new deal with Canada and Mexico — and the President is ecstatic.

President Donald Trump has announced a new Trade Deal that has him thrilled. Picture: AP

US President Donald Trump on Monday hailed a US trade pact with Canada and Mexico, which replaces the old NAFTA deal, as a historic agreement set to turn North America back into a “manufacturing powerhouse” and fuel US economic expansion.

Governing almost $US1.2 trillion ($A1.6 trillion) in trade, the pact known as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, is “the most important trade deal we’ve ever made by far,” Mr Trump told a White House press conference.

The agreement first announced late on Sunday, just before a midnight deadline, ended more than a year of tense negotiations sparked by Mr Trump’s decision to scrap the 25-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement.

Donald Trump was in a buoyant mood announcing the “historic’ trade pact. Picture; AP

Mr Trump’s aggressive tearing up of longstanding US trade deals — with everyone from its two huge neighbours to China and the European Union — has rattled world leaders and sparked fears of economic turmoil.

But in a buoyant performance at his Rose Garden press conference, Mr Trump said the approach of using harsh tariffs to force countries into renegotiating unfair deals had been vindicated.

“The United States in its trade deals has lost on average almost $US800 billion ($A1.1 trillion) a year. That’s dealing with China, dealing with European Union, with everybody, Japan, Mexico, Canada, everybody,” he said.

“We’re not going to allow that to happen.”

Late last night, our deadline, we reached a wonderful new Trade Deal with Canada, to be added into the deal already reached with Mexico. The new name will be The United States Mexico Canada Agreement, or USMCA. It is a great deal for all three countries, solves the many......

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 1, 2018

....deficiencies and mistakes in NAFTA, greatly opens markets to our Farmers and Manufacturers, reduces Trade Barriers to the U.S. and will bring all three Great Nations together in competition with the rest of the world. The USMCA is a historic transaction!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 1, 2018

Congratulations to Mexico and Canada!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 1, 2018

News conference on the USMCA this morning at 11:00 - Rose Garden of White House.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 1, 2018

The new deal will replace the 25-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement that was signed into law by former President Bill Clinton.

Mr Trump called NAFTA “the worst deal ever made” and blamed it for decimating American manufacturing jobs.

US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said in a joint statement that the new pact 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,” the statement said.

The new deal will repoalce the 25-year-old deal that was signed in to law by Bill Clinton. Picture: AFP

- with the New York Post