BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — President Donald Trump joined the leaders of Canada and Mexico at a global meeting in Argentina on Friday (Nov. 30) to sign a revised North American trade pact, fulfilling a longstanding political promise with a deal he celebrated as a “groundbreaking achievement.”

The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement is meant to replace the 24-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement, which Trump has long denigrated as a "disaster." While Trump canceled his meeting with Putin, the U.S. president was still scheduled to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, but analysts were not optimistic about prospects for a major breakthrough on the two countries' trade disputes a month before U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods are set to ramp up. There had been speculation Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau might not attend and send his foreign minister instead if Trump did not lift steel and aluminum tariffs, but Trudeau's press secretary confirmed Thursday night that he would be at the ceremony. He called the deal by its old name NAFTA, prodded Trump over U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs and said General Motors Co’s (GM.N) decision to cut production and its North American workforce, including in Canada, was a “heavy blow.”

“Donald, it’s all the more reason why we need to keep working to remove the tariffs on steel and aluminum between our two countries,” Trudeau said. On his last day in office, he said the new deal was forged with the “firm belief that we are stronger and more competitive.”

Legislators from the three countries still have to approve the pact, officially known as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), before it goes into effect and replaces the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Trump said that “the very important meeting” with Xi would go on, but he noted that Bush’s death “really puts a damper on it, to be honest with you.”

The United States and China are locked in a dispute over their trade imbalance and Beijing’s push to challenge American technological dominance.
The United States, Canada and Mexico sign the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement in Buenos Aires, replacing the North American Free Trade Agreement.