Senate Passes USMCA Trade Deal 89-10

ZeroHedge.com

It’s official: The Senate has passed President Trump’s USMCA trade accord that revamps the 1994 NAFTA agreement.

The final count: 89 to 10, with several high-profile Democrats, including Cory Booker and Chuck Schumer, opposing the measure.

By allowing Trump to sign USMCA into law on Thursday, the vote will enable his administration to celebrate two back-to-back wins on trade policy.

The vote on H.R. 5430 is ongoing, but a majority of senators have voted to approve the deal. It was passed by the Democrat-controlled House nearly one month ago.

The Commerce, Foreign Relations, Appropriations and Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committees all approved the deal on Wednesday, removing the final obstacle to a floor vote. The Senate’s approval will come more than a year after the underlying deal, which would replace the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement, was reached between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.

As Politico reminds us, passage of the deal fulfills Trump’s 2016 campaign promise to renegotiate NAFTA, a key part of his promise to rework international trade arrangements to the benefit of American workers. As the bill’s overwhelming passage suggests, Democrats also regard the deal as a win due to major changes they secured in negotiations with the Trump administration.

But that didn’t stop 10 Democrats from voting against it. Dem leader Chuck Schumer, the top Senate Dem, acknowledged that although the treaty is a win for workers, it doesn’t do enough to combat climate change, and thus he didn’t vote for it.

The new treaty won’t take effect until Canada approves the pact, which it’s expected to do in the coming weeks. Mexico already passed the revised deal back in December.

Watch the vote live below:

___
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=hJgNxObzpaE&feature=emb_logo