Trump press conference: President questions Christine Ford and says hearings have been ‘unfair’ for Brett Kavanaugh in USMCA trade announcement
President gives speech about new trade deal called the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA
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Donald Trump celebrated a new trilateral trade agreement Canada and the US reached to resurrect a deal with Mexico during a press conference at the White House Rose Garden.
The president claimed the new deal was replacing NAFTA, a promise he repeatedly made along the campaign trail, despite numerous analysts indicating it’s an modernised version of the former agreement. The new deal has been dubbed the United States-Mexico-Canada agreement, otherwise known as USMCA.
"The agreement will govern nearly $1.2 trillion in trade, which makes it the biggest trade deal in United States history," He said Monday. "It puts us in a position we've never been in before … This is a terrific deal for all of us." He also discussed his embattled Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, providing a full-throated defence for his pick amid an FBI investigation into sexual assault accusations against him.
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Donald Trump congratulated Robert Lighthizer for the $1.2tn trade deal’s completion, saying, “I’ve always said that if I ever do this I want to get Lighthizer on this.”
He also thanked Mexican President Nieto, calling him a “terrific” person and adding Mexican President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrado and he are developing a “really good relationship”.
Donald Trump has said the new agreement is “the most modern, up to date and balanced” deal in the history of the country, before claiming his critics are celebrating the USMCA deal.
The president also said its “one of the most advanced trade deals” in the world.
“Mexico and Canada will be opened up a lot more than they are now,” Donald Trump said Monday at the Rose Garden, highlighting the expanded access American farmers will have into Canadian dairy markets and other new components of the USMCA deal.
Donald Trump said the USMCA will be a “historic win” for automakers as well as farmers, adding that it’s a “privilege” for countries to business with the US, including the European Union and China.
“With this agreement we are closing terrible loopholes,” he continued.
Donald Trump has called the new trilateral trade agreement a “truly extraordinary [deal] for US, Canada and Mexico,” adding that companies will now have an incentive to return manufacturing to the US.
He also called the deal “a new dawn for the American automakers,” saying the USMCA will transform North America as a “manufacturing powerhouse and allow us to reclaim a supply train that has been offshore because of unfair trade" agreements.
Donald Trump said the USMCA agreement was reached “because of the power of tariffs,” adding that several nations have called his administration to begin trade negotiations, including India, which the US president referred to as the “tariff king”.
He then said China wanted to begin discussing trade, but added that he wanted the nation to help the US with the North Korea issue.
Donald Trump has addressed the tragedy in Indonesia, where a tsunami has killed over 800 people, as well as the one-year anniversary of the Las Vegas shooting.
He then gave the podium to Lighthizer, who said the trilateral trade deal was “easily” the biggest in history.
One of the top US priorities in the USMCA deal was to bring jobs back to America, according to Lighthizer.
“I think we have succeeded in this agreement,” he said.
Lighthizer congratulated Jared Kushner for the new agreement, adding, “This agreement wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for Jared.”
Lighthizer concluded his remarks by thanking Donald Trump, saying, “No other person could have done it,” referring to the completion of the new agreement.
Donald Trump then began answering questions from the media.
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