Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Trump signs revised trade pact
North American deal still faces test before Congress
The deal, also signed by leaders of Canada and Mexico on Friday, still faces congressional approval.
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — President Donald Trump signed a revised North American trade pact with the leaders of Canada and Mexico on Friday, declaring the deal a major victory for workers. But tensions over tariffs, looming GM layoffs and questions about the pact’s prospects in Congress clouded the celebratory moment.
The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement or USMCA, is meant to replace the 24year-old North American Free Trade Agreement, which Trump has long denigrated as a “disaster.” The leaders signed the new deal on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Buenos Aires after two years of frequently blistering negotiations. Each country’s legislature still must approve the agreement.
“This has been a battle, and battles sometimes make great friendships, so it’s really terrific,” Trump said, before lining up next to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and outgoing Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto to sign three copies of the deal.
The signing came at the beginning of a packed two days of diplomacy for Trump that will conclude with high-stakes talks Saturday with Chinese President Xi Jinping on ways to ease an escalating trade war between the two countries.
“There’s some good signs,” Trump said. “We’ll see what happens.”
Before Trump arrived in Argentina he injected additional drama into the proceedings by canceling a planned meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Also of interest was whether Trump would have an encounter with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who was attending amid global dismay over the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Trump gathered with the leaders for a traditional group photo, but did not appear to acknowledge Putin or the crown prince as he walked by. A senior White House official said Trump and the crown prince exchanged pleasantries during a subsequent leaders’ session.
The president insisted he canceled his meeting with Putin because of Russia’s actions in Ukraine and not because of the federal investigation into Russian interference in his own election.
Trump announced via Twitter on Thursday that he was canceling the planned meeting with Putin over Russia’s seizure of Ukrainian vessels.
The abrupt announcement came not long after his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, admitted lying to Congress to cover up that he was negotiating a real estate deal in Moscow on Trump’s behalf during the Republican presidential primary in 2016.
The news ensured any meeting with Putin would have put a spotlight on the U.S. special counsel’s investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Moscow during the election. Trump has denied any wrongdoing.
On Friday, Trump defended his pursuit of a real estate project in Russia at the same time he was securing the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, saying on Twitter: “Oh, I get it! I am a very good developer, happily living my life, when I see our Country going in the wrong direction (to put it mildly). Against all odds, I decide to run for President & continue to run my business-very legal & very cool, talked about it on the campaign trail...”
He added in a second tweet, “.... Lightly looked at doing a building somewhere in Russia. Put up zero money, zero guarantees and didn’t do the project. Witch Hunt!”
Later on Friday, the Senate intelligence committee referred cases to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election after witnesses questioned in the panel’s own Russia probe were suspected of lying, said Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., the committee chairman.
For the new North American trade deal, legislative approval is the next step. That could prove a difficult task in the United States, especially now that Democrats — instead of Trump’s Republicans — will control the House come January. Democrats and their allies in the labor movement are demanding changes.
Within hours of the signing, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said the deal must have stronger labor and environmental protections in order to get majority support in Congress and “must prove to be a net benefit to middle-class families and working people.”
Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi — who is seeking to become House speaker in the new year — quipped, “The trade agreement formerly known as Prince — no, I mean, formerly known as NAFTA, is a work in progress.”
Still, Trump projected confidence, saying: “It’s been so well reviewed I don’t expect to have very much of a problem.”
Trump is describing USMCA as a landmark trade agreement.
But most companies are just relieved that it largely preserves the status quo established by NAFTA: a regional trade bloc that allows most products to travel among the United States, Canada and Mexico duty free.
During the negotiations, Trump repeatedly threatened to pull out, a move that would have disrupted businesses that have built complicated supply chains that straddle the borders of the three countries.