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Trump: Congress can choose USMCA or nothing

President Donald Trump, center, sits between Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, right, and Mexico’s President Enrique Pena Nieto after they signed a new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement that is replacing the NAFTA trade deal, during a ceremony at a hotel before the start of the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, Nov. 30, 2018. (Martin Mejia / Associated Press)
Associated Press

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE – President Donald Trump says he will shortly be providing formal notice to Congress that he will terminate the North American Free Trade Agreement, giving lawmakers six months to approve the replacement he recently signed.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One while returning to Washington from Argentina, Trump said: “I will be formally terminating NAFTA shortly.”

Seeking to gain leverage with skeptical lawmakers to approve the revised trade pact, Trump says Congress “will have a choice” as it considers the agreement he signed with the leaders of Mexico and Canada on Friday during the Group of 20 summit.

He said they can choose between the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement or “pre-NAFTA, which works very well.”

Trump has made renegotiating NAFTA a centerpiece of his presidency.