Late on the eve of Sept. 30, Canada and the U.S. reached an agreement, alongside Mexico, on a new, modernized trade agreement for the 21st century. In a joint statement from U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, the ministers said the new deal will be called the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). 

“USMCA will give our workers, farmers, ranchers and businesses a high-standard trade agreement that will result in freer markets, fairer trade and robust economic growth in our region. It will strengthen the middle class, and create good, well-paying jobs and new opportunities for the nearly half billion people who call North America home,” Lighthizer and Freeland said.

“We look forward to further deepening our close economic ties when this new agreement enters into force,” Lighthizer and Freeland added.  

Sept. 30 marked the last day Canada could get rolled into the previously agreed upon deal with Mexico and still allow the 60 days needed for Congress to examine the deal. Mexico had sought a deal to be ratified and finalized ahead of when it’s new president comes into office Dec. 1.

Reports indicate the deal will preserve a trade dispute settlement mechanism that Canada fought hard to maintain. Mexico previously had agreed to eliminate what is known as Section 19 of the previous deal.

In return Canada has agreed to provide U.S. dairy farmers access to about 3.59% of its approximately $16 billion annual domestic dairy market. Canada’s dairy group said it was not happy with the additional market access.

Pierre Lampron, president of Dairy Farmers of Canada, said, “Granting an additional market access of 3.59% to our domestic dairy market, eliminating competitive dairy classes and extraordinary measures to limit our ability to export dairy products will have a dramatic impact not only for dairy farmers but for the whole sector. This has happened, despite assurances that our government would not sign a bad deal for Canadians. We fail to see how this deal can be good for the 220,000 Canadian families that depend on dairy for their livelihood.”

Senate Finance Committee chairman Orrin Hatch (R., Utah) said he was pleased that the Trump Administration was able to strike a deal to modernize the North American Free Trade Agreement with both Mexico and Canada. 

“NAFTA is a proven success for the United States, supporting more than 2 million American manufacturing jobs and boosting agricultural exports to Canada and Mexico by 350%," Hatch said. "Maintaining a trilateral North American deal is an important prerequisite to preserving and extending those gains and the Trump Administration has achieved that goal. I look forward to reviewing this deal to confirm it meets the high standards of Trade Promotion Authority.”

Casey Guernsey, a seventh-generation farmer, former Missouri state legislator and spokesman for Americans for Farmers & Families, stated, "Whether you breed cattle in Missouri like my family, raise hogs in North Carolina, grow corn in Iowa or simply shop at a local grocery store in New York, this announcement means that we will soon have the certainty we need to continue feeding our own and families around the world.

“After years of declining income and months of trade uncertainty, farmers desperately needed a win, and today the Trump Administration delivered it. While eager to learn the details, I hope that Congress will use this positive momentum to bring this important agreement over the finish line,” Guernsey said.

Read the full text of the deal here.