CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY

I am pleased to be back in México.

First of all, I would like to thank President López Obrador, Counsellor Marcelo Ebrard, Mexican Undersecretary for North America, Jesús Seade, and Senator Ricardo Monreal.

The modernization of NAFTA is of critical importance for our three countries.

It is a pleasure to be here with you all. I am delighted that Canada, the United States, and Mexico will today take an important step towards ratification of the new NAFTA.

And when this agreement is enacted, NAFTA will not only be preserved, updated, and modernized for the 21st century – which was our objective when we began this negotiation.

This is a progressive trade agreement that will be profoundly beneficial for our economy, for Canadian families, and for the middle class. When we began the work of updating NAFTA, we kept our focus on what really matters. The new agreement would need to preserve jobs, foster growth, expand the middle class, and support people working hard to join the middle class. We have accomplished that.

This agreement is excellent for hundreds of thousands of Canadian workers. Not only does it preserve essential cross-border supply chains, but it significantly increases workers’ rights and levels the playing field for workers across North America. 

Today, Canada, the United States, and Mexico have agreed to improvements to the new NAFTA that strengthen state-to-state dispute settlement, labour protection, environmental protection, intellectual property, the automotive rules of origin, and will help keep the most advanced medicines affordable for Canadians.

These amendments will ensure that rules-based trade between our three countries will continue to support the economic prosperity of our people and the global competitiveness of North America as a region.

These amendments will make NAFTA better.

Throughout the NAFTA negotiations – including discussion over the past several months on amendments to the agreement that was signed on November 30, 2018 – Canada has worked tirelessly to defend the interests and values of Canadians.

Our three countries have worked very hard together to modernize NAFTA and to maintain key provisions that provide stability, predictability, and rules-based trade for North American consumers and businesses. And we have accomplished this at a moment when, around the world, it is increasingly difficult to get trade deals done.

I would like to thank President López Obrador, Undersecretary Jesús Seade, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Ambassador Bob Lighthizer, and my Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau. This has been a long, arduous, and at times fraught negotiation.

We made it to the finish line because we learned how to work together.

I must, of course, thank Canada’s outstanding professional trade negotiators, led by Steve Verheul. You have done a great service for your country.

Finally, thank you to all the Canadians, from every corner of our magnificent country, from all walks of life, from all political points of view, who joined us in this effort. This includes Canada’s NAFTA Council and Premiers.

I have met and spoken with many hard-working Canadians across this country, since negotiations began in August of 2017. Today’s milestone is for you.

This negotiation has been an existential challenge for our country, and at times an existential drama. We achieved the result we are finalising today because we, as Canadians, worked effectively and in good faith with our North American partners. And above all because we played as a united Team Canada.

This is what we set out to achieve at the outset – a win-win-win agreement. And it is something of which we, and our partners, can be very proud.

Thank you all very much.