White House press secretary Sarah Sanders on Monday hit back at criticism over the Rose Garden ceremony touting the U.S. and Canada forging an 11th-hour trade deal that salvaged the trilateral framework of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

"Normally you wouldn’t have a ceremony like this bc the deals haven’t been that good for American workers and not worth celebrating," Sanders posted on Twitter, attaching a hashtag referring to the name of the new pact.


Sanders' tweet was in response to Agence France-Presse news editor Andrew Beatty, who noted that USMCA still has to be ratified by Congress and the corresponding legislatures in Canada and Mexico prior to it going into effect.

The USMCA, agreed to late Sunday, is likely to be considered by lawmakers on Capitol Hill in 2019 and could face hurdles should Democrats seize control of the House or Senate after the 2018 midterm elections.

This is not the first time the White House has received blow back for marking an achievement earlier than expected. The Trump administration promoted the passage of the House's American Health Care Act in May before the Senate failed to approve its "skinny" repeal of Obamacare in July.