Trump’s New North American Trade Deal also Aimed at Bigger Target: China

The Washington Post

03 October 2018

After more than a year of fitful negotiations, President Trump and the leaders of Canada and Mexico this week marked a new free trade agreement meant to pull together the three economies.

And, from Washington’s view, it has also meant push away a fourth: China

One of the most significant elements of the new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, analysts say, may be two lines tucked near the end of the accord. Nicknamed the “Trump veto” by some Canadian politicians, Clause 32 Section 10 allows signatories to pull out of the USMCA if one country pursues a separate free trade agreement with a “nonmarket country” — a thinly veiled warning, in other words, against any side deals with China.

The fine print in the North American pact offers the latest sign of how the deepening rivalry between the two largest economies is spilling over and threatening to polarize the world.

… “For Beijing, this is all just one more piece of Trump’s anti-China strategy,” said Alan Chong, a professor of international relations at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.

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Last updated on 04/10/2018