The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday, Oct. 2, edition that Canada has come out on top in the North American free-trade agreement negotiations. A triple bylined item in The Globe reports that Canada rebuffed President Donald Trump's attempts to create new continental trade barriers by making some significant concessions in agriculture and other areas in order to ensure the automotive sector and other key industries maintain free access to the all-important United States market. The tentative United-States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) preserves a key dispute-resolution provision, access by Canadian companies to U.S. government contracts and contains no American-content requirement on Canadian-made vehicles. It also guarantees that Mr. Trump will not hit Canadian vehicles with tariffs for the foreseeable future. Canada's concessions are narrow and targeted: 3.6 per cent of its protected dairy market opened to American farmers; stricter pharmaceutical patent rules that could raise the price of prescription drugs; and a higher threshold for duty-free on-line purchases. One bugaboo are U.S. tariffs on Canadian and Mexican steel and aluminum, with no indication when negotiations to lift them will conclude.
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