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On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that the United States and Mexico had reached a new agreement on trade. Since 1993, those two countries plus Canada have all been part of a trade deal called NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement. It was controversial when it was ratified. It's controversial today. NAFTA has impacted thousands of companies and millions of jobs. Analysts say American consumers have benefited by paying lower prices on many of the goods they buy.
But American factory workers say they've gotten the short end of the deal with their jobs outsourced to Mexico. A U.S. trade representative has also noted the pros and cons, saying NAFTA has helped American farmers and it's helped the U.S., Canada and Mexico grow closer. But he adds that at least 700,000 U.S. jobs have been lost because of it. For years, including when he was on the campaign trail, President Trump has criticized NAFTA and promised to either renegotiate it or get the U.S. out of it all together.
CARL AZUZ: So, mixed reactions and mixed results from NAFTA. President Trump says the name itself has a bad connotation. So the U.S. is going to call the new deal the United States-Mexico Trade Agreement. Negotiations on this have been going on for about a year. During that time, the U.S. has put tariffs or taxes on certain imported goods from Mexico and Canada and those countries have retaliated with tariffs of their own on American made goods. And all this happened even though the NAFTA agreement said they wouldn't do it. So the business world which includes the U.S. Stock Market saw the new agreement discussed on Monday as good news.
But one question is still unanswered. What about Canada? Will it also agree to the terms shared by the U.S. and Mexico? President Trump has indicated that he'd want individual deals with each of America's neighbors. But Mexico and Canada have said they want all three countries to be tied into the deal just like they were in NAFTA. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said he now wants Canada to be part of the new agreement. A Canadian government spokesperson says his country is quote, "encouraged by the continued optimism" shown by the U.S. and Mexico. So while there's hope that Canada will join in, it's not a done deal. There's still some uncertainty about the future of a three country trade agreement involving the U.S., Mexico and Canada.
