New Nafta is not the huge win that Trump claims

DONALD Trump on Monday celebrated the new Nafta deal, to be known as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), as "wonderful" and a "historic transaction!" The breakthrough, coming when Canada cut into an accord agreed by Mexico and the United States, buoyed financial markets and may provide a fillip for multilateralism too.

However, while Mr Trump has claimed that the renegotiation is a huge political and economic win for his America First approach, the final concessions are not as big as he had previously claimed possible. To be sure, the deal contains multiple wins for the United States - including a limited opening of Canada's dairy markets - but Washington has also agreed to Ottawa's request to preserve a trade dispute settlement mechanism while protecting Canada's car industry from potential further US tariffs.

Nonetheless, the US president will assert that the deal delivers on one of his key 2016 election promises, and he has certainly robustly challenged Mexico City and Ottawa through the process with a frequent war of words, undercutting significant goodwill in the process. Sunday's agreement will also give Mr Trump renewed confidence that his agenda can continue to reshape the international political economy after his earlier decisions to withdraw US participation from deals such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership; launch new trade sanctions against world powers from the EU to China; and also threaten that the US withdraw from the World Trade Organization.