Unreported by the mainstream media in the United States or Canada were then-Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto’s remarks about the USMCA just prior to signing the agreement, alongside U.S. President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
As U.S. President Donald Trump lauded the newly revised United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) as the greatest and largest trade deal ever for the United States, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto spoke a different tune, boasting in Spanish how the deal would further “integrate” North America.
On November 30, 2018, on the backdrop of the G-20 meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina, all three North American leaders — U.S. President Donald Trump, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and then-Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto — held a ceremony for the signing of the trilateral pact intended to replace NAFTA.
What you probably didn’t catch on the news coverage that day, at least not in any of the mainstream English-language broadcast and cable-news coverage in the United States or Canada, were President Peña Nieto’s remarks, which he delivered in Spanish.
On what was his last day in office as president of the United Mexican States, Peña Nieto said, in Spanish, of the new agreement: “The negotiation of the Mexico-United States-Canada Treaty made it possible to reaffirm the importance of the economic integration of North America.”
The “Mexico-United States-Canada Treaty” is the English translation for the USMCA’s name in Spanish, used by the Mexican government. The Spanish acronym for it is T-MEC, which stands for Tratado México-Estados Unidos-Canadá.
President Peña Nieto further remarked, in Spanish, about the significance of the USMCA/T-MEC, “The renegotiation of the new trade agreement sought to safeguard the vision of an integrated North America, the conviction that together we are stronger and more competitive.” He added, “The Mexico-United States-and-Canada Treaty gives a renewed face toward our integration.”
Trade, jobs, and economic growth are only a pretext for the new agreement. The real purpose of the new agreement, as Peña Nieto admitted, is integration — the merging of the United States, Mexico, and Canada into what The New American has long-described as the North American Union. Just as the European Union is the culmination of decades-long European economic integration, beginning with the Marshal Plan and the European Coal and Steel Community, so too would a North American Union be the culmination of the decades-long North American integration beginning with NAFTA and now the USMCA.
Shortly after signing the agreement, Peña Nieto tweeted:
On my last day as President, I am very honored to have participated in the signing of the new Trade Treaty between Mexico, the United States and Canada. This day concludes a long process of dialogue and negotiation that will consolidate the economic integration of North America.
The USMCA is not a step back toward American independence and sovereignty; it’s a step closer toward greater integration, as Peña Nieto boasted at the ceremony.
Related links:
Trump, Peña Nieto, and Trudeau Sign USMCA Integration Scheme
