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TORONTO (AP) — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday Canada will move next week to formally approve the new North American trade agreement.
Trudeau said the government will introduce a motion when Parliament resumes Jan. 27, and will introduce legislation to ratify the deal two days later.
Trudeau said millions of Canadians depend on stable, reliable trade with their largest trading partners.
That will effectively remove the final legal hurdle to the deal with the U.S. and Mexico.
U.S. President Donald Trump campaigned in 2016 on ripping up trade deals that he said added to the nation’s trade deficit and cost the country manufacturing jobs. He promised he would rewrite NAFTA if elected, a pact he described as “the worst trade deal in history."
Last week, the U.S. Senate passed its implementation bill of the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
Trudeau's government had been waiting for the U.S. to formally ratify the pact before introducing its own bill. Mexico ratified the deal in June.
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