The Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), signed in November 2018, will come into force tomorrow rather than August as originally planned.
• Read also: The CUMA will come into effect on July 1
• Read also: MPs Adopt New North American Trade Agreement
The value of trade between the three countries amounts to 1100 billion US dollars.
But the most important thing for Canada is access to the American market.
The two countries trade in US $ 700 billion in goods and services annually.
The federal government is pleased to have safeguarded this access with the new NAFTA.
“The most important thing is that we have continued to protect the privileged access that thousands and thousands of Canadian businesses, and millions of Canadians, have to the American market,” said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. in a press briefing.
Canada cannot declare victory, however, since the United States is now considering the possibility of imposing new tariffs on Canadian aluminum.
These rates could be harmful for Quebec.
“It sure would hurt us very much. I asked the federal government to be very hard on the Americans. We must use all the legal possibilities we have, ”said Quebec Premier François Legault.
The leader of the Bloc Québécois wants the Trudeau government to protect the interests of the province.
“I hope that the government will show determination in protecting the interests of Quebec and Canada, when implementing a new free trade treaty, the cracks of which already appear a little yawning,” he said. -he mentioned.
According to Justin Trudeau, Canada has told the Americans that they are on the wrong track on the aluminum issue, among other things because they do not produce enough to meet their own needs.
– .
