Posted on 10/01/2018 10:27:18 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
The new pact is a major step toward completing one of the president's signature campaign promises.
Trade ministers from the U.S., Mexico and Canada have reached a deal to revamp the North American Free Trade Agreement, the Trump administration announced late Sunday night.
The new pact, which is being called the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, is a major step toward completing one of Trump’s signature campaign promises and gives the president a concrete policy win to tout on the campaign trail this fall. It also sets the stage for what is sure to be a high-stakes fight to get the agreement passed by Congress before it can become law.
The Trump administration already formally notified Congress at the end of August of its plans to sign a new pact and faced a deadline of the end of September to provide a draft of the agreement.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in late August that officials are planning to sign with their Canadian and Mexican counterparts by the end of November — a date that would also satisfy Mexico, which is eager to have current President Enrique Peña Nieto sign the deal before his successor takes over Dec. 1.
“It’s a great win for the president and a validation for his strategy in the area of international trade,” a senior administration official said on a call with reporters late Sunday.
People briefed on the outlines of a revamped deal described changes in language governing dairy imports, dispute resolution between countries, limits on online shopping that can be done tax free, and limits on the U.S. threat of auto tariffs.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
Winning!
I don’t seem to be able to find the answer to this question.
What happened with the 300 percent tax on dairy products that the president is always talking about with Canada?
The deal will preserve a trade dispute settlement mechanism that Canada fought hard to maintain to protect its lumber industry and other sectors from U.S. anti-dumping tariffs, Canadian sources said.
But this came at a cost.
Canada had agreed to provide U.S. dairy farmers access to about 3.5 percent of its approximately $16 billion annual domestic dairy market, the sources said, adding that the Canadian government is prepared to offer compensation to dairy farmers hurt by the deal.
The influential Dairy Farmers of Canada lobby group, which strongly opposes the idea, said in a statement that it insisted "any final NAFTA deal should have no further negative impact on the dairy sector."
No, the tariffs don’t go away. However, a greater quantity of product will be able to move tariff-free.
In 2017, Canada imported C$471 million ($368 million) in dairy products from the U.S., while C$149 million crossed the border in the opposite direction, creating a deficit of about C$322 million, Canadian government data show. Still, dairy is a tiny part of the $500 billion in goods the nations trade annually.
Canada’s concessions will boost the amount of milk, cheese and cream the U.S. can ship tariff-free, including increasing fluid milk exports to 50,000 metric tons by year six of the agreement, according to the office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
I am not sure exactly what that translates into, but I appreciate you finding that information.
I took away that the Canadian dairy industry is not happy.
That’s a good sign.
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