The agreement is the result of a renegotiation between north American Free Trade Agreement member states from 2017 to 2018, who informally agreed on the terms of the new agreement on September 30, 2018 and officially on October 1. [10] The USMCA was proposed by US President Donald Trump and signed on November 30, 2018 by Trump, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the sidelines of the 2018 G20 Summit in Buenos Aires. A revised version was signed on December 10, 2019 and ratified by all three countries, with final ratification (Canada) taking place on March 13, 2020, just prior to the adjournment of the Canadian Parliament due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The momentum for a North American free trade area began with U.S. President Ronald Reagan, who incorporated the idea into his 1980 presidential campaign. After the signing of the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement in 1988, the governments of the United States of America and the United States had President George H. W. Bush, Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari, and Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney agreed to negotiate what became NAFTA. Both submitted the agreement for ratification in their respective capitals in December 1992, but NAFTA faced significant opposition in the United States and Canada.

The three countries ratified NAFTA in 1993 after the addition of two subsidiary agreements, the North American Agreement on Labour Cooperation (NAALC) and the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC). On December 10, 2019, the three countries entered into a revised agreement with the USMCA. On the 29th. In January 2020, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs Chrystia Freeland introduced the USMCA Implementation Act C-4[93] in the House of Commons and passed first reading without a recorded vote. On February 6, the bill passed second reading in the House of Commons by 275 votes to 28, with the Bloc Québécois voting against and all other parties voting in favour, and was referred to the Standing Committee on International Trade. [99] [100] [101] On February 27, 2020, the Committee voted to refer the bill to the plenary for third reading without amendment. Several difficulties arose before and shortly after the entry into force of the Treaty on 1 July 2020. First, President Trump said on May 31, 2019, that the United States would impose a 5% tariff on all Mexican imports starting June 10. He threatened the tariff increase if the Mexican government did not take stricter measures to reduce the number of Central American asylum seekers entering the United States from Mexico. On August 6, 2020, President Trump announced that he would reintroduce the tariffs on Canadian aluminum originally introduced in 2018. The Canadian government responded, saying it planned to impose the same tariffs on U.S.

aluminum products. On October 27, the day the Canadian government was supposed to unveil its retaliatory measures for trade, President Trump suspended tariffs retroactively to September 1. However, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said the U.S. USMCA was signed by all three sides at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires on November 30, 2018, as planned. [58] [59] Disputes over labour rights, steel and aluminum prevented the ratification of this version of the agreement. [60] [61] Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lightizer and Mexican Secretary of State for North America Jesus Seade officially signed a revised agreement on December 10, 2019, which was ratified by all three countries on March 13, 2020. The novelty of the USMCA is the inclusion of Chapter 33, which deals with macroeconomic policies and exchange rate issues. This is seen as important as it could set a precedent for future trade agreements. [54] Chapter 33 sets out monetary and macroeconomic transparency requirements that, in the event of a violation, would constitute grounds for appeal under Chapter 20. [54] The United States, Canada and Mexico currently meet all of these transparency requirements in addition to the substantive policy requirements consistent with the articles of the Agreement on the International Monetary Fund.

[55] According to Chad P. Bown (senior researcher at the Peterson Institute for International Economics) “is unlikely that a renegotiated NAFTA that restores barriers to trade will help workers who have lost their jobs – regardless of the cause – to take advantage of new employment opportunities.” [154] Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders, who opposed the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, called it “a continuation of other disastrous trade agreements such as NAFTA, CAFTA, and normal ongoing trade relations with China.” He believes that free trade agreements have led to the loss of American jobs and low American wages. Sanders said America needs to rebuild its manufacturing base by using U.S. factories for well-paying jobs for American workers, rather than outsourcing to China and elsewhere. [126] [127] [128] A fourth round of talks included a U.S. call for a sunset clause that would terminate the agreement in five years unless the three countries agreed to maintain it, a provision that U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said would allow countries to terminate the agreement if it did not work. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with the House Ways and Means Committee because Congress would have to pass legislation reversing the terms of the treaty if Trump tried to withdraw from the pact. [136] WASHINGTON – President Trump has long used the word “NAFTA” as an epithet, mocking the North American Free Trade Agreement as the worst trade agreement in history. During the year 2016 in the United States During the presidential election, Donald Trump`s campaign included the promise to renegotiate NAFTA or cancel it if the renegotiations failed. [21] After the election, Trump made a number of changes that affected trade relations with other countries. The withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, the suspension of negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the significant increase in tariffs with China were some of the measures he was implementing, reaffirming that he was serious about seeking changes to NAFTA.

[22] Much of the debate about the virtues and shortcomings of the USMCA is similar to that of all free trade agreements (FTAs), for example, the type of free trade agreements as public goods, potential violations of national sovereignty, and the role of business, labour, environmental and consumer interests in shaping the language of trade agreements. .