WASHINGTON: Presi­dent Donald Trump on Monday celebrated a revi­sed North American trade deal with Canada and Mexico as a return of the United States to a “manufacturing powerhouse,” vowing to sign the agreement by late November.

But the president noted that the deal would need to be ratified by Congress, a step that could be complicated by the outcome of the fall congressional elections.

When told he seemed confident of congressional app­roval, he said he was “not at all confident” but felt ratification would be granted if lawmakers took the correct action.

“Anything you submit to Congress is trouble no matter what,” Trump said, predicting that Democrats would say, “Trump likes it so we’re not going to approve it.”

Trump embraced the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement during a Rose Garden ceremony, branding the pact the “USMCA.” The president said the name has a “good ring to it,” repeating U-S-M-C-A several times.

The agreement was forged just before a midnight deadline imposed by the US to include Canada in a deal reached with Mexico late in the summer. It replaces the 24-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta), which Trump has lambasted as a job-wrecking disaster that has hollowed out the nation’s industrialized base.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2018