The Canadian Parliament on Friday, March 13 ratified the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), making Canada the third and final country needed to make the trade pact official and replace the North American Free Trade Agreement, according to a report from the Washington Examiner.
The United States, Mexico and Canada concluded negotiations for a new trade agreement to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in September 2018 and on January 29, President Donald Trump signed the new trade deal. Mexico passed the agreement in June 2019. Canada is the last of the three countries to approve the deal.
Under the USMCA, all food and agriculture products that have had zero tariffs under the NAFTA will continue to enjoy zero tariff access to the partner nations’ markets.
“USMCA is a great victory for America’s agriculture industry, and I am pleased to see Canada’s Parliament approved the deal,” said US Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue. “USMCA locks in and expands access to our neighbors to the North and South. I thank President Trump for negotiating this deal and for always supporting America’s farmers and ranchers. We will continue to work with both Canada and Mexico in implementing this agreement.”
“Now that the USMCA has been approved by all three countries, a historic new chapter for North American trade has begun,” said U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.
Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister, Chrystia Freeland, said passing the trade deal would provide an economic boost that would help counter the damage to the country’s economy from the coronavirus pandemic. “Getting NAFTA done was something that was entirely within the power of Canadian legislators to do and something we were able to do to help the Canadian economy at this challenging time,” she told reporters Friday.
According to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), Canada and Mexico are the United States’ first and second largest export markets for food and agricultural products, totaling more than $39.7 billion in food and agricultural exports in 2018. These exports support more than 325,000 US jobs.
