Just before midnight on Sunday, the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta), which had been in force since 1994, was reincarnated as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). The deal, reached after more than a year of difficult negotiations, will hopefully lay to rest the uncertainties in the trade relationship between the US and its neighbours. It will also come as a relief to businesses in the US, Canada and Mexico; the looming threat of tariffs on cars and other goods, which would have disrupted established supply chains, has been lifted.

US President Donald Trump, who labelled Nafta "the worst trade deal ever", hailed the USMCA as "a brand new deal" and "a historic transaction". In reality, it is but an update of the old Nafta, with a few new provisions.