Washington (AFP) – The USMCA trade agreement has been hailed as the start of a new era in North American commerce. Unfortunately, it officially launched in the middle of a pandemic.Starting Wednesday, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement binds nearly half a billion consumers in a single market that comprises about 27 percent of global GDP, in a region where trade hit $1.2 trillion in 2019.But that was before COVID-19. Now the borders between the countries are partially closed, and the IMF is forecasting severe drops in all three North American economies this year.USMCA replaces the 1994 N…
