On Wednesday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called on the House of Commons to ratify the free trade agreement.
US President Donald Trump sent a draft to Congress to ratify the Trade Treaty between Mexico, the United States and Canada (T-MEC) as soon as possible, despite attempts by Democrats to discuss the treaty with more time.
The decision to send the draft "Declaration of Administrative Action" to Congress was seen as a challenge by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Democrat Nancy Pelosi.
"This indicates a lack of knowledge on the part of the Administration about the policy and the process to approve a commercial agreement," Pelosi said in a statement.
Pelosi criticized that Trump sent the document to put pressure on Congress, when they were discussing the T-MEC with the US Trade Representative, Robert Lightizer.
"We all agree that we should replace NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), but without the real enforcement mechanisms we would be locking up US workers in another bad business," he added.
This Trump action comes in the midst of the visit of US Vice President Mike Pence to Canada, where he will discuss with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about the new trade agreement that replaces NAFTA.
Canada y Mexico
On Wednesday, Trudeu submitted a bill to the House of Commons to ratify the T-MEC.
During his speech, Trudeau asked the Canadian Parliament to ratify the agreement to ensure "access to a commercial zone that represents more than a quarter of the global economy."
On the other hand, the secretary of Economy of Mexico, Graciela Márquez, informed this Thursday that they would deliver to the Senate the text of the protocol of the T-MEC.
"This is the last step to a process of modernization of the trade agreement that the US, Mexico and Canada signed in 1994," said Márquez.
The new agreement was reached on September 30, in the negotiations to update the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which was in force since 1994 and which US President Donald Trump had described as "obsolete."
After the signing of the treaty during the G20 summit in Argentina last November, the negotiations followed a difficult path, mainly because of Trump's resistance in some aspects central to the US economy.
Last year, Washington imposed tariffs of 25% for the import of steel and 10% for aluminum under the argument of the defense of national interests.
On May 17, Trump announced the elimination of tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum from Mexico and Canada.
"I am pleased to announce that we have just reached an agreement with Canada and Mexico, and we will send our product to those countries without the imposition of tariffs or without significant tariffs," Trump announced.
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