WASHINGTON (TNND) — Former President Donald Trump has made trade deals a key point in his bid for the White House. This comes after Trump dismantled NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, and replaced it with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, during his presidency in 2020.

For a quick history lesson, NAFTA was a three-country deal, negotiated between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico that reduced tariffs and let these countries freely trade with each other. It was signed into law in 1994 by Former President Bill Clinton.

According to the Council on Foreign Relations:

It contributed to an explosion of trade between the three countries and the integration of their economies, but was criticized in the United States for contributing to job losses and outsourcing.

It’s been thirty years since NAFTA was signed into law and it’s been highly criticized by both Republicans and Democrats across the board. Critics say even though it created a huge economic boom in trade, it hurt American jobs. The Economic Policy Institute estimates NAFTA caused the loss of around 700,000 U.S. jobs from 1994 to 2013, many of those from companies moving to Mexico.

Unlike NAFTA, the USMCA requires 75% of a car’s parts to be made in North America, while also strengthening environmental and labor laws and adding rules for digital trade.

According to Investopedia:

One of the most significant portions of the USMCA stipulates new trade regulations for automobiles and automotive parts.

As far as whether or not this is a better deal, it depends on who you ask, but it did get a majority of support from both Democrats and Republicans.

Where does Trump stand on trade deals now?

Trump has said the global trading system is rigged against the U.S., and it’s responsible for U.S. manufacturing jobs going down the drain. His current campaign platform promises to get the U.S. back to being the manufacturing superpower of the world by rebalancing trade towards more domestic production.

According to Trump's campaign website:

The Trump Reciprocal Trade Act will put America first and continue President Trump’s unparalleled trade success that reduced America's trade deficit, grew wages, and created more than half a million new manufacturing jobs

Where does Harris stand on trade?

As for Harris, she thinks all major trade deals need to consider the workers and the climate, so they need to have protections in there. Harris has also criticized Tariffs but says the U.S. should de-risk trade with China.

According to Harris' campaign website:

Vice President Harris will not tolerate unfair trade practices from China or any competitor that undermines American workers.

Under the Biden Administration, they oversaw the creation of massive subsidies for green energy, infrastructure, and technology to incentivize companies to protect the environment.

Senator JD Vance criticized Harris for voting to keep NAFTA in place and technically yes, she did. Harris was one of only 10 senators who voted no on Trump’s USMCA agreement that replaced NAFTA.

Harris says she voted no because the new agreement didn’t go far enough with replacing NAFTA and protecting the environment. One could compare this instance to House Republicans who shot down President Biden’s border bill earlier this year, they said it didn’t go far enough to protect the border.