U.S. Senate approves USMCA trade deal

The Republican-led U.S. Senate finally passed North America’s long-delayed new free trade pact Thursday, its final piece of legislative business before it transforms into a high political court of sorts for the impeachment of President Donald Trump.

After passing the Democratcontrolled House of Representatives last month, the so-called implementation bill — the nuts and bolts of precisely how the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement will be executed, followed and enforced — cruised through the Senate by a margin of 89-10.

Short of the president’s signature, which is expected as early as next week, the focus now shifts back to Canada.

The federal Liberal government has been waiting for legislative progress on the American front before introducing its own implementation bill. Mexico ratified the deal back in June.

Officials in the Prime Minister’s Office say they expect the agreement to be high on the government’s agenda when Parliament resumes Jan. 27, and that the Canadian legislation is ready to be introduced in the House of Commons.

Despite the impending impeachment trial casting long shadows on Capitol Hill, Thursday’s vote marked a longsought win for Trump’s trade agenda, his second in as many days. On Wednesday, he signed the first phase of what he’s billed as a two-part comprehensive trade agreement with China, with Phase 2 not expected until after the November election.

Trump’s long-standing promise to improve on the existing North American Free Trade Agreement was a major cornerstone of his 2016 election win, particularly in parts of the country where farmers and blue-collar workers have blamed their economic struggles on the relentless march of global trade and the exodus of manufacturing jobs to China and Mexico.

“Quite a week of substantive accomplishments for the nation, for the president and for our international trade,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said prior to the vote.

Robert Lighthizer, Trump’s top trade diplomat and chief negotiator on the deal, declared that “a new chapter in U.S. trade policy has begun” and that the agreement was “the new gold standard against which all future trade agreements will be judged.”

The agreement will bring more manufacturing jobs to the United States, enforce labour and environmental standards, and give innovative American industries an advantage, he said in a statement. And it contains a “sunset” provision that will give the U.S. leverage to bend the agreement further in the future, he said.

Canadian Finance Minister Bill Morneau welcomed the U.S. ratification, saying the new trade deal is good for business.

“It will enable us to help investors to make decisions without concerns around agreements that need to be made,” Morneau said Thursday in Calgary.