OTTAWA, May 30 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said here Thursday the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) is a triple win deal, despite criticism of the pact from oppositions.
The USMCA is "superior to NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) in virtually every respect" and it would "lead to much greater growth and opportunity throughout our countries and across North America once it's ratified," said Pence at a joint news conference with Trudeau during his first official visit to the Canadian capital.
Pence said that his presence in Ottawa was mainly intended to "put a spotlight on the importance" U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has placed on the USMCA, which will pass the U.S. Congress this summer.
Signed by the three nations on Nov. 30 to replace the NAFTA, the USMCA awaits approval by the trio's respective legislatures before fully taking effect.
U.S. Democrats, who hold the majority in the House of Representatives, want to see stronger environmental protection and labor standards included in the deal.
Trudeau made a point of reaching out to them, saying that progressive provisions on the environment, labor, gender and indigenous issues are "integral parts of what makes it a better deal for workers on both sides of the border."
In the House of Commons of Canada on Wednesday, Trudeau introduced a legislation to ratify the USMCA nearly two weeks after the U.S. lifted tariffs on Canadian and Mexican steel and aluminum, and Canada and Mexico in turn dropped their retaliatory tariffs on American goods.
However, Canadian official opposition leader Andrew Scheer, whose Conservative Party will support passing the government bill to implement the new trade agreement, said the prime minister "had a once-in-a-generation opportunity to negotiate a better deal and he failed, (and) gave Donald Trump everything the president wanted and more."
As a result of the USMCA, the United States will have "unprecedented influence" over future Canadian negotiations with potential new trading partners, Scheer told the parliament on Wednesday.
While Pence credited Trudeau for his "determination to drive a hard bargain for Canada," the left-of-center opposition New Democratic Party (NDP) said the visiting vice president and his boss are the beneficiaries of the prime minister's push to ratify the USMCA, and not the U.S. Democrats that Trudeau appealed to for support.
"We should be supporting the efforts of the Democrats in the (United) States, and not working against them and siding with Donald Trump and Mike Pence and saying that we will rush this deal through," Tracey Ramsay, NDP critic for international trade, told reporters on Parliament Hill.
