Trump called the USMCA the best trade deal ever. Analysts say it’s not likely to help Texas during the pandemic – By Meena Venkataramanan & Julian Aguilar (Texas Tribune) / Aug 12 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic has clobbered the Texas economy and trade with Mexico, clouding the trade deal’s potential impacts, experts say.
When the port of Laredo passed Los Angeles to become the busiest trade hub in the country in February, optimism was high in Texas.
An ongoing U.S. trade war with China meant a drop in traffic at West Coast trade hubs while Texas’ land ports with Mexico were on the verge of benefiting from the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, a 21st century upgrade to the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement. The new agreement between the U.S., Mexico and Canada was touted by President Trump and some Democrats as a landmark deal that would ensure America stayed on top of the global economy.
Trump called it the “the best and most important trade deal ever made by the USA” in a December 2019 tweet, then repeated his frequent claim that NAFTA was the country’s worst trade deal.
But several months into a COVID-19 pandemic that continues to ravage the global economy, analysts say there isn’t anything in the USMCA that’s going to make an immediate difference and help offset the massive economic losses caused by the pandemic.
Continue to article: https://www.texastribune.org/2020/08/12/usmca-trade-agreement-coronavirus-texas-mexico/
