Details
Written by White House
Category: News
Published: 27 August 2018
Washington, DC - "America has … finally turned the page on decades of unfair trade deals that sacrificed our prosperity and shipped away our companies, our jobs, and our Nation’s wealth." ~ President Donald J. Trump
A PROMISE KEPT: President Donald J. Trump is delivering on his promise to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) so all American workers can benefit.
The Administration has secured a preliminary United States–Mexico Trade Agreement that modernizes and rebalances the trade relationship to reflect the realities of the 21st century.
This agreement will create more reciprocal trade that grows the economy, supports high-paying jobs for American workers, and protects American intellectual property.
The preliminary agreement is a mutually beneficial win for North American farmers, ranchers, workers, and businesses.
President Trump is following through after years of promises by politicians to fix NAFTA.
This is the first time that a modern United States trade agreement has been renegotiated.
The preliminary agreement will benefit American workers, American manufacturing, and American agriculture, through provisions including:
New “rules of origin” requirements to incentivize billions a year in vehicle and automobile parts production in the United States, supporting high-wage jobs.
The strongest, fully enforceable labor standards of any trade agreement.
New commitments to reduce trade-distorting policies for agricultural goods.
Improvements enabling food and agriculture to trade more fairly.
Strong and effective intellectual property protections.
The strongest disciplines on digital trade of any international agreement.
The most robust transparency obligations of any United States trade agreement.
MODERNIZING NAFTA: The 24-year-old NAFTA was outdated and unbalanced, hurting American jobs and businesses.
Many Americans have been hurt by closed factories, exported jobs, and broken political promises resulting from the old NAFTA.
NAFTA has contributed to our ballooning annual goods trade deficit, which grew from $115 billion in 1993, the year before NAFTA’s implementation, to nearly $800 billion in 2017.
The United States went from a $1.6 billion goods trade surplus with Mexico to a $70 billion goods trade deficit during that same time period.
The old NAFTA includes many outdated provisions that have not been updated to reflect modern standards, new technologies, or the 21st century global economy.
NEGOTIATING FOR THE AMERICAN WORKER: President Trump has made it a priority of his Administration to replace unfair deals with free, fair, and reciprocal trade.
Since taking office, President Trump has undertaken multiple trade negotiations in addition to NAFTA that will benefit American workers.
President Trump reached an agreement with the European Commission to work toward zero tariffs, increase energy exports, reduce non-tariff barriers, and address unfair trade.
Keeping another campaign promise, the Trump Administration successfully secured key amendments to the trade agreement with South Korea to strengthen our manufacturing base.
