Let’s see if we’ve got this straight: The Trump administration, one of the most actively protectionist in decades, reached a deal over the weekend with Canada’s center-left government to revamp NAFTA.

Also fully on board is Mexico’s left-wing labor party. And U.S. labor unions, which opposed the original NAFTA in 1993, are making encouraging noises about this new version—which by the way strikes the term “free trade” and would now be called the “United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement,” or USMCA. Say this about it: The new name literally puts America first.

Given the principals who entered this deal, the smart place to start any analysis of the agreement is from a posture of skepticism that it will encourage more and freer trade. The scrutiny is just starting, as the administration released the text late Sunday night. No doubt lobbyists, trade groups, labor unions, and business lobbies are right now scouring the text to determine its effects on their workers and companies. It’s early to draw conclusions. The deal requires approval by Congress, and the three countries are racing to have it in effect before Dec. 1, when Mexico’s new government takes office.

It’s fair to ask why free trade requires hundreds of pages of protection in the form of 34 chapters, 11 “agreement annexes,” and 12 “side letters”— such as the “United States-Mexico Side Letter on Cheese Names.” If you want free trade, just agree to drop all tariffs and non-tariff barriers. That would be a short, simple agreement. But of course, each country is retaining the right to many of its trade protections. For instance, Canada largely retains its “supply management system” for dairy, and the U.S. can keep its steel tariffs imposed earlier this year, although both those issues seem to be inching toward freer markets.

That might be a better measure to take stock of this deal: Does it move toward free trade? By that measure, there’s room for optimism.

Perhaps the most significant feature of the new agreement is it modernizes the quarter-century-old NAFTA to reflect the economic realities of 2018. The agreement gives new protections for intellectual property and seeks to expand financial services and digital commerce. Many of those measures, none of which was controversial in the negotiations, were components of the Trans-Pacific Partnership that Trump killed soon after taking office in 2017.

More controversial are new measures on auto manufacturing, which require more stringent labor standards and higher worker pay for autos to qualify for tariff-free treatment.

A lot of business groups have praised the deal, though perhaps many are happy to have avoided the alternative of excluding Canada. Groups representing U.S. farmers, manufacturers, retailers, and other businesses say they are encouraged by the pact. For businesses, having clear and modern rules provide the certainty to plan for the future. Economically, the new agreement probably won’t spur a boom, but on balance it seems more helpful than not. Stocks rallied on the news Monday, reflecting that optimism.

More details will trickle out in the coming days. Some of the biggest questions will be political, not economic: Can labor unions support the deal? And will it attract significant Democratic votes in Congress?

Politically, the deal allows Trump to claim a big and unifying accomplishment just weeks ahead of the midterm elections—one that corrects a supposed “unfair deal” for his rural and blue-collar base while showing independents he can play well with others. He wasted no time claiming credit Monday morning at a White House announcement. In typical Trump style, he called the agreement the “single greatest agreement ever signed” that constitutes “truly historic news for our nation and, indeed, for the world.”

The truth, as usual, might wind up falling short of that measure. Sequels rarely are as good as the original. More reviews will quickly pour in.