USMCA, the ‘most significant trade agreement’ ever, will lift U.S. economy by less than 0.5%: report

An independent federal agency finds that President Donald Trump‘s new North America trade agreement would give the U.S. economy only a modest boost.

The International Trade Commission says that Trump’s U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement would lift the U.S. economy by 0.35%, or $68.2 billion, and add 176,000 jobs six years after it takes effect.

That’s barely a ripple in a $21 trillion-a-year economy and a job market of almost 151 million people.

The commission’s analysis is required by law and is expected to kick off a congressional debate on the regional trade pact designed to replace the 25-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement.

The revised version, which requires congressional approval, is meant to restore to the United States jobs lost to Mexico when NAFTA tore down trade barriers across the region.

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