Canada, Mexico and the United States have reached an agreement on a new North American free trade deal and they will sign it on Tuesday, but the pact still needs the approval of U.S. and Canadian lawmakers, Mexico’s president said.
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said the three countries had agreed on tweaks to labor, steel and aluminum provisions in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), after U.S. Democrats pressed for changes, particularly to strengthen enforcement of new Mexican labor laws.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland and U.S: White House adviser Jared Kushner will take part in the signing ceremony at 1200 (1300 ET), a senior Mexican official said on Twitter.”On our end, there is now a deal. We’re convinced that it’s a good deal for Mexico, just as it is for Canada and United States,” Lopez Obrador said, adding that the signing would happen in Mexico’s historic National Palace.
“In the case of the United States, there’s a deal from the government, but we need Congress to ratify it,” Lopez Obrador said.
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who will hold a news conference on Tuesday morning, has said the deal is close to being finalized.
