what was said

“This is one of the largest trade deals ever made. Maybe the largest trade deal ever made.”

— President Trump, in a phone call with President Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico on Monday

the facts

False.

Mr. Trump announced on Monday that the United States and Mexico had reached a preliminary agreement to revise key portions of the North American Free Trade Agreement. That is not the same thing as signing a new bilateral deal.

Nor would a United States-Mexico trade agreement potentially rank as the “largest trade deal ever made.”

It is premature to consider the bilateral agreement a done deal. Canada, the third country that was a party to Nafta in 1993, has not yet agreed to the changes. Participating in Monday’s announcement via conference call, Mr. Peña Nieto, the outgoing Mexican president, said he hoped Canada would rejoin the negotiations.

Congress would also need to approve the changes before the trade deal could go into effect.

Even if Mexico eventually agreed, and Congress approved the two-country deal, it would by definition be smaller than Nafta, a three-country deal. In 2017, trade between the United States and Mexico totaled $615.9 billion in goods and services. That same year, trade between the United States and Canada was about $57 billion more, at $673.1 billion.