NAmerican trade pact takes effect

WASHINGTON, D. C.: The USMCA trade agreement has been hailed as the start of a new era in North American commerce. Unfortunately, it officially launched in the middle of a pandemic.

Starting Wednesday, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement binds nearly half a billion consumers in a single market that comprises about 27 percent of global GDP, in a region where trade hit $1.2 trillion in 2019.

But that was before Covid-19. Now the borders between the countries are partially closed, and the IMF is forecasting severe drops in all three North American economies this year.

USMCA replaces the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and was negotiated after attacks by US President Donald Trump, who said it destroyed American jobs and was unfair.

He hailed the new deal as a "tremendous victory" for workers and boasted that "hundreds of thousands" of jobs would be created.

"I made a solemn promise to the American people that I would end the job-killing failure called the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and replace it with a better deal for our workers, farmers, ranchers, and businesses," Trump said in a statement Wednesday.

The US president had threatened to rip up NAFTA, pushing Canada and Mexico to come to the bargaining table. Following marathon talks, the three parties signed the initial version of the new trade agreement in November 2018.

Mexico ratified it in December 2019, and Trump signed the pact into law in January after amendments demanded by Democratic lawmakers. Canada's parliament adopted it in March.