Trump signs a 'new NAFTA' deal with Mexico and Canada

Mexico&#039;s President Enrique Pena Nieto (L) US President Donald Trump (C) and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, sign a new free trade agreement in Buenos Aires, on November 30, 2018

(Image credit: Saul Loeb/Getty Images)

last updated 1 December 2018

President Trump, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday signed the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), a new trade deal Trump has sought to replace NAFTA.

Despite the signing ceremony on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Argentina, USMCA will not go into effect unless it gains congressional approval. Trump expressed optimism that the agreement will be made official — "I don't expect to have much of a problem," he said Friday — but members of both houses of Congress have raised concerns.

The USMCA signing also did not affect Trump's imposition of heavy steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada and Mexico, though the Canadian delegation threatened to refuse signature until they were lifted. "We need to keep working to remove the tariffs on steel and aluminum between our countries," Trudeau reiterated at Friday's ceremony. "With hard work, goodwill, and determination, I'm confident we will get there."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Explore More

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.

Subscribe to The Week

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox