WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that he plans to sign a new trade deal with Mexico and Canada by the end of November to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
"It's my great honor to announce that we have successfully completed negotiations on a brand new deal to terminate and replace NAFTA... with an incredible new U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement called USMCA," Trump said at an event at the White House to celebrate the new trade deal.
"I plan to sign the agreement by the end of November. I then will submit it for approval to Congress, where, in theory, there should be no trouble," he said.
Talks on renegotiating the NAFTA began in August 2017 as Trump threatened to withdraw from the trilateral trade deal and claimed that it harmed U.S. industries and jobs.
The U.S. and Mexico struck a preliminary agreement to update the 24-year-old NAFTA by late August. Then U.S. and Canadian negotiators made the final push this weekend to reach an agreement before a midnight Sunday deadline, allowing leaders from the three countries to sign the new trade pact by late November.
