Trump press conference: President questions Christine Ford and says hearings have been ‘unfair’ for Brett Kavanaugh in USMCA trade announcement
President gives speech about new trade deal called the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA
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Donald Trump celebrated a new trilateral trade agreement Canada and the US reached to resurrect a deal with Mexico during a press conference at the White House Rose Garden.
The president claimed the new deal was replacing NAFTA, a promise he repeatedly made along the campaign trail, despite numerous analysts indicating it’s an modernised version of the former agreement. The new deal has been dubbed the United States-Mexico-Canada agreement, otherwise known as USMCA.
"The agreement will govern nearly $1.2 trillion in trade, which makes it the biggest trade deal in United States history," He said Monday. "It puts us in a position we've never been in before … This is a terrific deal for all of us." He also discussed his embattled Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, providing a full-throated defence for his pick amid an FBI investigation into sexual assault accusations against him.
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Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the White House news conference on the United States-Mexico-Canada-Agreement (USMCA).
In a joint statement ahead of Monday morning’s press conference, Canada and the US released a joint statement saying the agreement will “strengthen the middle class, and create good, well-paying jobs and new opportunities for the nearly half billion people who call North America home".
Read up on The Independent’s immediate analysis of the deal below.
Officials from all three nations have celebrated the new agreement ahead of Monday’s press conference announcing the trilateral deal.
"It's a good day for Canada," prime minister Justin Trudeau said as he left his office. Mr Trudeau said he would have more to say Monday.
"We celebrate a trilateral deal. The door closes on trade fragmentation in the region," Jesus Seade, trade negotiator for Mexico's incoming president, said via Twitter.
Donald Trump tweeted Monday morning about the trade deal, writing, “Late last night, our deadline, we reached a wonderful new Trade Deal with Canada, to be added into the deal already reached with Mexico. The new name will be The United States Mexico Canada Agreement, or USMCA. It is a great deal for all three countries, solves the many deficiencies and mistakes in NAFTA, greatly opens markets to our Farmers and Manufacturers, reduces Trade Barriers to the U.S. and will bring all three Great Nations together in competition with the rest of the world.”
“The USMCA is a historic transaction!” He added.
Canada is the United States’ No. 2 trading partner, but was left out of initial trade agreements between the US and Mexico last month. Some US officials feared that would leave the northern nation out of future agreements, before they were then reinstated into the USMCA deal.
“I am pleased that the Trump administration was able to strike a deal to modernize Nafta with both Mexico and Canada," said Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. "Nafta is a proven success."
Here are some of the major components to the new United States-Mexico-Canada agreement (USMCA):
American farmers will have greater access to the Canadian dairy market
Maintains disputed NAFTA resolution process
Offers Canada protection from impromptu tariffs on auto parts and vehicles imported into the US
Several experts have criticised the trilateral agreement’s name change from NAFTA to USMCA, including political scientist Ian Bremmer, who tweeted Monday, “USMCA is not an entirely new deal, but it’s more than a tweak on NAFTA.”
“Improved IP protections, new auto rules, expanded access to Canada dairy, improved labor/environment regs, and more,” he wrote, adding, “Trump will exaggerate the win. But it’s a win.”
President Donald Trump is expected to hold a press conference momentarily to officially announce the new trilateral agreement, known as United States-Mexico-Canada (USMCA).
President Donald Trump has begun speaking at the White House Rose Garden, joking about being in Washington, which he referred to as “the swamp,” before saying it was too “beautiful a day” to call the capitol that term.
“It’s my great honor to announce that we have successfully completed negotiations,” the president said Monday, calling the new deal the “USMCA.”
“That’ll be the name,” he said. “It’s got a good ring to it.”
Donald Trump celebrated the supposed fulfillment of his campaign vow to scrap NAFTA, saying “we negotiated this new deal on the basis of fairness” before saying “we have been treated so unfairly by so many nations”.
“We’re changing that,” the president said Monday.
However, initial analysis indicates the USMCA deal is essentially a modernised NAFTA.
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