As the deal kicks in, the Trump administration is threatening Canada with new aluminum tariffs, and a prominent Mexican labor activist has been jailed, underscoring concerns about crucial labor reforms in the replacement for the 26-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement. The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement includes tighter North American content rules for autos, new protections for intellectual property, prohibitions against currency manipulation and new rules on digital commerce that did not exist when NAFTA launched in 1994. USMCA launches as the coronavirus has all three countries mired in a deep recession, cutting their April goods trade flows - normally about $1.2 trillion annually - to the lowest monthly level in a decade. “The champagne isn’t quite as fizzy as we might have expected - even under the best of circumstances - and there’s trouble coming from all sides,” said Mary Lovely, a Syracuse University economics professor and senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. “This could be a trade agreement that quickly ends up in dispute and higher trade barriers.” On Wednesday, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer touted USMCA as the "most far-reaching, beneficial and modern trade agreement in our history," adding that it would create tens of thousands of new U.S. manufacturing jobs.

https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-usmca/new-north-american-trade-deal-launches-under-growing-threat-of-disputes-idUKKBN2424E2