As the Trump administration hoped aloud Friday that progress will lead Congress to ratify a new North American free trade agreement in September, a top Canadian trade official visiting Salt Lake City said his country’s Parliament aims to pass it in tandem if U.S. lawmakers act.
The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, “is extremely important to Canada,” said Omar Alghabra, Canada’s parliamentary secretary for international trade diversification — roughly equivalent to a U.S. deputy secretary as a No. 2 official beneath a Cabinet minister.
“Let me give you a number. Trade between our two countries exceeds $2 billion a day.