Global News has confirmed that the United States Mexico Agreement Canada (USMCA) will be signed just outside the margins of the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina on Friday morning.
The USMCA will be signed at the Hyatt Hotel at 9 a.m. with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, U.S. President Donald Trump and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto in attendance.
While officials stated that the deal would likely be signed Friday, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and Trudeau would not confirm the signing officially until Thursday night.
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According to officials, however, details of the USMCA deal were being finalized right up until the night before the parties were to put pen to paper.
“A vast number of technical details need to be scrubbed and wrapped up,” Freeland said
“The fact that this is an agreement in three languages adds to the level of technical complexity and it is on that level that we are just being sure that all the Is are dotted and all the Ts are crossed,” Freeland said Thursday afternoon, speaking on a hotel patio in Buenos Aires.
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“Our objective has always been to sign this agreement on Nov. 30 and we are on track to hit that objective,” she added.
The signing aligns with an international trade summit taking place in Buenos Aires over the weekend, where all three leaders will be in attendance along with other prominent figures on the global stage.
While signing the deal is largely ceremonial – Canada, Mexico and the United States still need to ratify the agreement – the date was set largely with the transition of the Mexican government in mind.
Mexican President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who’s often criticized free trade, takes over just one day after the signing.
Congress has already warned that they don’t expect the USMCA to be ratified until after the new Congress is sworn in next year.
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