President Trump touts USMCA deal at Michigan auto supplier
The deal could create 80,000 new jobs
President Donald Trump landed in Warren, Michigan, Thursday at the Dana Inc. automotive supply facility to discuss the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement.
The president’s appearance comes days after he signed the USMCA trade deal, designed to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement, which he once called a “disaster.”
“You were losing all your jobs, they were leaving, they were going to other countries,” Trump said at the event. “But we stopped it, and this deal stops it, and now they are coming back because they want to be where the action is … in our country and in this state.”
The USMCA is set to cover more than $1 trillion of commerce between the United States, Mexico and Canada. The deal also requires 75 percent of auto parts to be made in the three counties to skirt overseas tariffs, which is why the president was at the Dana plant.
The agreement also calls for up to 45 percent of auto parts must be made by workers earning at least $16 an hour by 2023, and is expected to create 80,000 new auto jobs, bringing up to $30 billion in new investments to the industry.
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The deal is It’s also forecast to create jobs in the American farming sector.
Once fully in place, the USMCA could raise the U.S. gross domestic product 1.2 percent.
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“These members and your congressmen have worked so hard for this state,” Trump said. “They support all of the great jobs here at Dana. The hard-working men and women, here in Warren, make the axles, drive shafts and assemblies of some of the world’s toughest vehicles, and they proudly bear that glorious phrase … ‘Made in the U.S.A.’”
Dana workers manufacture car parts for the big-three automakers, Fiat-Chrysler, Ford and General Motors.
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This is the president's most recent visit to Michigan, a key state in the upcoming 2020 election, which he won in 2016. He held a rally in Battle Creek in December, where he dismissed allegations that he committed impeachable offenses in his dealings with Ukraine.