Washington | Reuters — The new North American free trade pact would modestly boost the U.S. economy, especially auto parts production, but may curb vehicle assembly and limit consumer choice in cars, a hotly anticipated analysis from the U.S. International Trade Commission showed on Thursday.
The ITC report is a crucial step in the push for Congress to consider ratification of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which was signed by President Donald Trump and the leaders of the other two countries last year to replace the 25-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement.
Read Also
Alberta crop conditions improve: report
Varied precipitation and warm temperatures were generally beneficial for crop development across Alberta during the week ended July 8, according to the latest provincial crop report released July 11.
The report estimates that annual U.S. real gross domestic product would increase by 0.35 per cent, or US$68.5 billion, on an annual basis compared to a NAFTA baseline, and would add 176,000 U.S. jobs, while raising U.S. exports.
The ITC’s estimates are for year six of the trade deal, once it is fully implemented.
The trade deal’s success or failure in Congress could be determined by how it is expected to affect the U.S. auto industry, a sector that steadily drained jobs to Mexico under NAFTA. The USMCA deal contains much tighter regional content rules, requiring that 75 per cent of a vehicle’s value be sourced in North American versus 62.5 per cent currently, and 40-45 per cent produced in high-wage areas, namely the U.S. and Canada.
Auto industry employment would rise by 30,000 jobs for parts and engine production, but U.S. vehicle assembly would decline. U.S. vehicle prices would rise up to 1.6 per cent, causing consumption to fall by 140,000 units per year, or about 1.25 per cent of 2017 sales, the report said.
The report overall was more positive than initially anticipated by economists, who said the traditional economic models used by the ITC to measure previous trade deals would result in minimal gains for the United States.
White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett told Reuters that he was pleasantly surprised by the results, which used different modeling methods that he called “accurate and well done.”
“Their estimate is a lot closer to what we think USMCA will do than I expected,” Hassett in a telephone interview. “This is very strong argument for passing the USMCA.”
Concerns not alleviated
But some key Democrats were not swayed from their demands for improvements to the enforcement of new labour standards before they consider USMCA. Democrats control the U.S. House of Representatives.
Representative Earl Blumenauer, chairman of the House ways and means trade subcommittee, said that he had already believed the trade deal needed changes before it could be considered by the House. “Nothing in this report alleviates those concerns,” he said.
Senator Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate finance committee, said, “The administration shouldn’t squander the opportunity to lock in real, enforceable labour standards in Mexico.”
The ITC report said Mexican union wages would rise by 17.2 per cent if the labour provisions agreed in the USMCA are enforced. Even so, Mexican factory wages would remain far below those in the U.S.
Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate finance committee, praised the report for highlighting benefits beyond tariff reductions.
“Many of the significant improvements in USMCA are reducing non-tariff barriers and implementing rules and fair practices that will help U.S. workers, jobs and businesses tremendously over the coming years,” Grassley said in an emailed statement.
Dueling analyses
The U.S. Trade Representative’s office had prepared a separate analysis of USMCA’s automotive benefits that industry officials had described as a rosier alternative view of USMCA aimed at limiting any potential damage from the ITC report.
USTR estimated that the trade deal would create 76,000 automotive sector jobs within five years as automakers invest some $34 billion in new plants to comply with the regional content rules. The total includes about $15 billion in projects already announced.
USTR officials said their analysis was based on plans disclosed by automakers to the trade agency for compliance with the new agreement’s tighter rules of origin.
“They have verbally committed to us that they intend to comply with the rules,” a senior USTR official said. “And they have told us that this is not going to have significant upward pressure on vehicle prices.”
But the ITC report said some automakers may decide not to offer vehicles that would be too expensive to bring into compliance with the deal, reducing consumer choice in the U.S. auto market.
The trade group representing Detroit automakers Ford, GM and Fiat Chrysler said it viewed the USTR analysis as more accurate than the ITC’s.
The ITC “underestimates the longer-term investments and increased U.S. auto parts sourcing that will be made in our sector as a result of the certainty and predictability the USMCA will deliver,” Matt Blunt, president of the American Automotive Policy Council, said in a statement.
The USMCA deal will also lead to new access for U.S. exports of dairy, poultry and egg products to Canada and U.S. imports of sugar and sugar-containing products from Canada, the ITC said.
The ITC’s forecast estimated total U.S. dairy product output would increase by $226.8 million, or 0.1 per cent. U.S. agriculture and food exports overall would increase by $435 million.
Nebraska farmer Lynn Chrisp, president of the U.S. National Corn Growers Association, cautioned that ITC reports typically measure economic impact of “new” trade agreements and focus on market access.
Since the original NAFTA deal already eliminated most tariffs on exports of U.S. food and agriculture products, he said in a release, the ITC’s report “doesn’t fully capture the economic benefits of trade with Canada and Mexico, nor the improvements to trade rules in USMCA that benefit agriculture.”
The benefits of USMCA “make it clear why Congress must immediately ratify” the deal, Association of Equipment Manufacturers president Dennis Slater said in a separate release. The AEM represents North American farm, construction and off-road equipment makers.
Ratification, he added, “must also come with the immediate removal of all tariffs — which continue to hurt the U.S. economy and risk the many benefits of free and fair trade.”
— Reporting for Reuters by David Lawder and David Shepardson in Washington; additional reporting and writing by Chris Prentice in New York. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.
