Washington (AFP)

President Donald Trump promulgated the new trilateral trade agreement negotiated for many months with Mexico and Canada, as well as the Democratic opposition, on Wednesday.

It is the last act in a very long process which started from the arrival of the republican billionaire in the White House in January 2017, until the final adoption by the American Congress in mid-January of the State Agreement - United Mexico Canada (AEUMC).

"Today, we are finally ending the nightmare of the Alena," said Donald Trump during a signing ceremony at the White House, in reference to the previous agreement that linked the three countries since 1994 but that strongly criticized, believing that it had cost too many jobs to the American economy.

"For two decades politicians have run for office promising to replace the Alena", "and never tried once elected," he added to members of his government, elected officials and union representatives. . "I am not like all these policies", "I keep my promises", he insisted, already campaigning for his re-election to the presidential election in November.

According to him, under the previous North American agreement, the United States "lost jobs, factories and other countries built" American cars. "But we changed that."

He therefore promised a "glorious future" to American industry thanks to the USMCA, referring to "a colossal victory" for his slogan "America first".

The new text is a grooming of the 1994 Alena. It provides for example innovations in environmental matters, but above all must reduce the differences in treatment between workers from the three countries to avoid massive relocations.

The amended USMCA has already been ratified on December 10 by Mexico, and is expected to be ratified without difficulty by Canada in the coming weeks. Justin Trudeau's government launched parliamentary ratification on Monday, calling on the opposition to approve it quickly.

The majority Democratic House of Representatives in the United States had agreed to endorse it in December, after lengthy discussions with the Trump administration and at the cost of numerous amendments to the original text released in late 2018. The Senate followed suit not on January 16, and the president's signature was just a formality.

US Commerce Minister Robert Lighthizer, who spearheaded negotiations on the US side, welcomed a "historic grand deal".

This is in fact an economic victory that Donald Trump can claim, following the signing of a trade treaty with China which sealed a truce in the trade war and offers respite to American farmers and industrialists, the same people who brought the Republican President to power in 2016.

Trade between the United States, Mexico and Canada is crucial to their economies.

For example, American trade with these two countries supports 12 million jobs in the United States and 49 of the 50 American states count Mexico or Canada among their three main merchandise export markets, according to data from the American Chamber of Commerce.

Canada and Mexico account for 40% of the growth in total US merchandise exports. And trade with the two countries reached nearly 1.4 trillion dollars in 2018.

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