WASHINGTON — Former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney has praised former U.S. President George H.W. Bush as a strong world leader who helped oversee the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union and was "responsible for the North American Free Trade Agreement" with Canada and Mexico.
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With President Donald Trump, a sharp NAFTA critic, seated in the front row at Bush's funeral, Mulroney said Wednesday the deal "created the largest and richest free trade area in the history of the world" and was "recently modernized and improved by new administrations." Trump had called the trade deal unfair to the U.S. and moved to replace it.
Mulroney said Bush also deserves credit for the Americans with Disabilities Act and revising the Clean Air Act. He said, "There's a word for this. It's called leadership."
Bush died last week in Houston at age 94.
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