WHAT ABOUT THE REST OF THE ASIAPACIFIC?

The House of Commons is debating legislation to ratify the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), an Asia-Pacific trade pact that includes access to Japan and Australia, and also includes USMCA partner Mexico. It’s “moving swiftly,” said Joseph Pickerill, a spokesman for Carr.

Another party to that deal is Vietnam, which the U.S. considers to be a “non-market economy,” but Canada is likely to ratify it before USMCA takes effect, and Mexico already has. Once six of the 11 parties ratify, the trade zone enters into force among them.

Before Trump came into power and withdrew from it, the U.S. was a signatory to a previous version of the TPP negotiated by President Barack Obama. The text of that agreement formed a skeleton for many of the provisions in USMCA. While Japan’s leaders have expressed hope that the U.S. will re-join the agreement, for now it gives Canadian and Mexican companies advantages over American ones.