USMCA 'carefully crafted' to protect jobs: US Labor secretary
The 'historic' agreement is 'totally different' than NAFTA
President Trump made the United States-Mexico-Canada-Agreement (USMCA) official on Wednesday after he signed it into law during a ceremony at the White House.
Trump said during his speech the landmark agreement not only ends the “NAFTA nightmare” but is also a fair and reciprocal trade deal that will keep jobs, wealth and growth in America.
U.S. Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia told FOX Business’ Neil Cavuto that the historic pact is carefully crafted and negotiated to protect American jobs, and he added that the International Trade Commission estimates it could create as many as 500,000 new positions to the labor force and GDP growth of $230 billion.
USMCA TO CREATE 600,000 JOBS: US ENERGY SECRETARY
Trump said the deal is a massive win for manufacturing and automakers. But when Cavuto pointed out that President Bill Clinton’s NAFTA agreement failed to boost manufacturing, Scalia said the USMCA is a "totally different agreement" that includes the “best most effective labor protections of any trade agreement ever struck anywhere in the world.”
The USMCA requires 75 percent of automobile components to be manufactured in the United States, Canada or Mexico in order to avoid tariffs. By 2023, some 40 to 45 percent of automobile parts must be made by workers who earn at least $16 an hour.
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Scalia said the agreement is going to ensure that Mexican workers have some of the same rights and “American workers are going to be on equal footing.” In the auto sector alone, he added, that could mean 76,000 new jobs.
FOX Business' Jonathan Garber contributed to this report.
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