While the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) is far from a done deal, the Trump administration is touting that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) replacement could create 76,000 jobs within five years. The jobs would stem from automakers investing $34 billion in new plants to comply with the new agreement. The figures, released by the U.S. Trade Representative agency (USTR) runs contrary to what some economists have projected, believing that USMCA will provide few gains, if any gains, in U.S. manufacturing.
One of U.S. President Donald Trump’s key campaign promises during the 2016 presidential race was either adjusting NAFTA in favor of the U.S.A, or eliminating it altogether. Trump has touted the agreement as detrimental to the U.S. economy and to American workers. Back in October, the Trump administration succeeded in getting Canada and Mexico to sign onto a new trade agreement, termed USMCA. While the respective leaders of each country support the new deal, final approval will come from each country’s respective legislatures. The U.S. Congress is due to vote on the issue later this year.
All that makes this report from the USTR rather noteworthy. The administration’s expectations for the USMCA agreement to create 76,000 jobs come ahead of an independent trade panel’s analysis of the NAFTA replacement. To build support for the bill, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer met with the United Automobile Workers union last month, but the organization’s officials seemed unimpressed with the deal, calling for an even stronger agreement. Doing so, however, would require opening up the USMCA to new negotiations, which would threaten the existence of the current deal.
The $34 billion in new auto investments is based on information provided by automakers to the USTR. The new trade agreement would require 75 percent of the content for a vehicle sold in the North American region to be produced in North America, with 40-45 percent of that content required to be produced by high-wage workers. The U.S. Trade Representative agency also told reporters that no automaker that currently produces vehicles in North America would opt out of the agreement.
If all three North American legislatures approve the NAFTA replacement, it would be a political win for Trump, who promised an influx of new manufacturing jobs across the country – something that isn’t happening yet as General Motors and others automakers brace for a downturn in auto sales.
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Source: Reuters
Comments
Where are all the haters now?
those numbers come from the white house. the same white house that said that trillion dollar tax cut would pay for itself. deficits are hitting record levels.
USCAM hasn’t been approved and they are trying to sell it. so i’d take those numbers with a ton of salt.
Always the excuse for your views.
facts are inconvenient especially if you have a propensity for lying.
but trump knows his crowd.
No thumbs down, Scott, but a question… what in reality has changed. It’s not even close to a done deal and the industry can’t be forced into bankruptcy to support a campaign promise that was poorly conceived.
The industry has dramatic changes facing it and will have too wend it’s way carefully to a viable future which might include new jobs to offset job losses, but will those new jobs equal the losses. Zero -Sum – Game? Let us hope not.
^They’re too busy looking at the Trump administration’s track record of lies, empty promises, and lost manufacturing jobs.
Has anyone told Democrats who are fighting the Trump Administration as this 76,000 good paying manufacturing jobs which Obama said was gone forever and asked if Trump had a magic wand; Trump has something better.. GENIUS.
that 76,000 number has as much credibility as a trump university diploma.
Clearly… “Genius” is not in his deck of cards, but bombastic posturing and sleight of hand… is.
We can’t be led by the nose by our biases.
Question everything but the sun rising with an open mind or wither into diminished relevance.
Trump 2020 ??
Putin 2020?????
The latest numbers on the economy show that manufacturing in the US is at its lowest in the last 25 years while the Chinese economy has just recorded their best numbers in the last 10 months. Deficit with China is at the highest level in history. In that respect, current policies to reduce the deficit are a complete failure. The service economy in the US is doing well and masking the huge drop in manufacturing.
Democrats won’t approve USMCA.
The US government had put in place illegal tariffs on steel and aluminium to negotiate USMCA but intends to keep them in place which is a job killer in the US.
Mexico and Canada won’t approve the deal if the tariffs remain, so NAFTA is set to remain in place.
Reuters, April 19, 2019. The U.S. International Trade Commission estimated the proposed new North American free trade deal would modestly boost the U.S. economy but could reduce U.S. vehicle production.
The economic assessment of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), released on Thursday, said the trade deal would increase U.S. real gross domestic product by 0.35 percent, or $68.5 billion, on an annual basis and add 176,000 U.S. jobs, while raising U.S. exports.
The report’s estimates are for year six of the trade deal, once it is fully implemented.
Auto industry employment would rise by 30,000 jobs for parts and engine production, but U.S. vehicle production would decline in and U.S. vehicle consumption would be reduced by 140,000 units, or 1.25 percent of 2017 sales, because of higher prices, the report said. Complying with new rules of origin and other requirements under the agreement would lead to small increases in vehicle costs.
The report found that 1,500 U.S. vehicle manufacturing jobs would be lost and the price of new U.S. vehicles would rise from 0.4 percent for pickup trucks to 1.6 percent for small cars.
The report may give ammunition to opponents of the deal. The leaders of the three countries approved the deal last year, but it still must be approved by the U.S. Congress. The deal is a replacement for the more than two-decade-old North American Free Trade Agreement.
The auto industry had been a key focus of the deal for the Trump administration. Some automakers may decide “not to offer vehicles that would be too expensive to bring into compliance, which would ultimately decrease consumer choice,” the report said.
President Donald Trump has touted the deal as boosting the U.S. auto industry employment, which could be a key 2020 campaign issue in some battleground states. In February, he said at his State of the Union address that the deal would “ensure that more cars are proudly stamped with our four beautiful words, ‘Made in the USA.’”
Not a single of the 20+ Democrats running for President has said a word on how they would grow the US Economy, how they would guarantee higher wages except through the end of a gun barrel.. raise wages or we’ll tax you out of existence; this is what everyone needs to think about.. is everyone ready to give up independence and walk in lock step with the Democratic Socialist Party of America as they already have their private army of ANTIFA militants dressed in black to keep you in line as Democratic governors allow these punks to assault anyone who gets in their way. Just think.. even if Trump wins in 2020; AOC will most likely be the Democratic Presidential nominee for 2024.
Man, you sound really scared, like all your Trump friends. The more they scare you, the more you guys dance to the tune of their populist slogans… They do it because it works.
Where are those disappearing caravans and gangs of killer rapists. Lol
The only thing this comment of yours, ‘Omegatalon’ reveals… is that your a lazy
Parrot and thoughtless consumer of the Right Wing operatives specious noise.
Lazy because you don’t vet their deliberately miss leading, agenda driven talking points.
Parrot because you gleefully repeat them without question.
Consumer, because you need your sources too confirm your biases so your only sources are those that support your deliberately limited world view.
Now regarding ‘AOC’. I sure hope your right, as we need to make exponential progress if your ass and mine are going to be saved from our selfish excesses.
The enemy is in the field and well armed to destroy us and we haven’t even got a worthy commander or the tools in place to defend ourselves let alone win a must win battle for our future.
Earth will abide, but it is more likely everyday that we won’t be around much longer as a civil, viable society for the ride into the future.
Regards
Hoping Mothers skirt is large enough to provide you with cover. Grow up!
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