The widely touted and long-negotiated United States-Mexico-Canada-Agreement (USMCA) finally went into effect on July 1, after several years of discussions and wrangling among the three countries’ leaders and trade officials.

Among the notable updates to the former North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) are new regulations on digital trade, point-of-origin rules for tariff-eligible products, labor enforcement mechanisms and reform in the automotive and dairy industries.

“I’m sure glad it was renegotiated,” Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) told The Hill this week. “I’m not sure that I agree with the president that it was the worst agreement ever, but it needed to be renegotiated, and part of it’s because things like the digital economy [were] never an issue 30 years ago.”

The implementation comes as Canada’s government announced it’s facing a C$343 billion deficit this year due to COVID-19, much of it because of recent economic aid for individuals and businesses. It’s a level of spending the country hasn’t seen since World War II, the government reported, which also forecasts a national deficit of $1.2 trillion for 2020-2021.

“Some will criticize us on the cost of action,” Finance Minister Bill Morneau said in the House of Commons on July 8 during the official announcement. “But our government knew that the cost of inaction would’ve been far greater.”

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who has expressed hopes that the USMCA will help the three countries’ economies recover after the pandemic, traveled to Washington, D.C., the same day to hold talks with President Donald Trump about the new agreement moving forward.

WATCH LIVE: Trump, Mexico's president to deliver joint statement on CUSMAhttps://t.co/zWs4Y2nd0L

— Globalnews.ca (@globalnews) July 8, 2020

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did not make the trip, citing COVID-19 concerns and ongoing differences about potential U.S. tariffs on Canadian metal imports. While the agreement’s implementation lends certainty to what’s long been a situation fraught with divergences and ambiguity, reports of a tiff dominated headlines this week.

Trump had agreed to lift the metals tariffs on Mexican and Canadian imports ahead of final approval late last year, but there are reports that he’s considering reinstating the Canadian ones in an attempt to persuade the government there to put an export quota on aluminum headed for the U.S.

“We have heard obviously the musings and proposals from the United States [that] perhaps there needs to be more tariffs on aluminum,” Trudeau told reporters this week. “What we simply highlight is the United States needs Canadian aluminum. They do not produce enough, nowhere near enough aluminum in the States, to be able to fill their domestic manufacturing needs.”

Moving forward, proper implementation of the USMCA will be the new focus. “We must now monitor enforcement and compliance with both partners to ensure that they live up to their commitments,” Grassley told the Hill. “I’m sure they’re going to be monitoring the United States to make sure we live up to it.”

Talk surrounding the new agreement was largely overshadowed this spring by the pandemic, and so far it’s been quiet for promo companies as well. “Nothing is blipping on our radar at the moment,” said Daniel Baker, the Toronto-based brand manager for BCG, Beacon and Debco for Top 40 supplier HPG (asi/61966). “I continue to think this was largely a political play designed to look like more meaningful reform than it really is, with the exception being specific industries I have no expertise in. I hope that’s the case, and that more challenges won’t crop up because of it. We’ve certainly had enough of those in the global economy already.”

Kippie Helzel, senior vice president of sales for Custom Plastic Specialties (asi/43051) in Erie, PA, also doesn’t expect much change, particularly when it comes to cross-border transactions. “I don’t believe there will be any measurable impact on our promotional products business,” she said.

Discussions among U.S., Canadian and Mexican trade officials about an updated agreement began in 2017, after Trump, who was elected president in 2016, made renegotiation a campaign promise. The new version goes into effect just four months before the 2020 U.S. presidential election.