U.S., Canada, Mexico sign trade agreement

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 tension over tariffs, looming GM layoffs and questions about the pact’s prospects in Congress clouded the celebratory moment.

The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement is meant to replace the 24-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement, which Trump has long denigrated as a “disaster.” The leaders signed the new deal on the sidelines at the Group of Twenty summit in Buenos Aires after two years of frequently blistering negotiations. Each country’s legislature still must approve the deal.

“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 — Trump using a black marker for his signature scrawl.

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 already demanding changes.

Within hours of the signing, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said the deal must have stronger labor and environmental protections 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 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.”

The new agreement does make some changes to the way business is done in North America. It updates the trade pact to reflect the rise of the digital economy since the original NAFTA took effect nearly 25 years ago. It gives U.S. dairy farmers more access to the protected Canadian market. And the deal encourages auto firms to invest or expand in the U.S. and Canada, not low-wage Mexico, by requiring that 40 percent of a car’s content be made where autoworkers earn at least $16 an hour; otherwise, the cars won’t qualify for USMCA’s duty-free treatment.