U.S. Senate approves USMCA trade deal

The United States, Mexico, and Canada trade deal ( USMCA ) was finally approved by the U.S. Senate , after months of negotiations.

As expected, the USMCA was approved by both Republicans and Democrats . After its overwhelming approval in the House of Representatives 40 days ago, and with the support of seven committees, the U.S. Senate approved the trade deal with 89 votes.

However, not everyone voted in favor. The Democrat leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer voted against the USMCA because “it doesn’t address climate change , the biggest threat faced by the planet,” as well as presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders .

Now that the USMCA has been approved, it will be sent to the oval office where President Trump will sign it in order to make it official.

This week, Trump said he will sign the agreement next week.

Mitch McConnell,

the Republican leader in the Senate , said the USMCA “is the biggest update to the U.S. commerce policy in almost 30 years.” Meanwhile, Mexico’s Commerce Undersecretary Luz María de la Mora is in meetings to organize its implementation.

Mexican officials will host a press conference in Washington later today.

However, the ratification of the USMCA has been a hazardous road for Mexico since 2017 , when the negotiations started. Months later, the three countries reached a consensus and Mexico signed the USMCA in November 2018 during the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires , while Enrique Peña Nieto was still President. Ever since the trade deal has been modified countless times and Jesús Seade , the Undersecretary for North America faced harsh negotiations with Washington for months.

In the U.S., the Democrat majority in the House of Representatives was not willing to accept some of the terms included in the initial text, especially in regards to labor and the environment .

After several changes, Mexico and the U.S. reached a new agreement on December 10, 2019 .

Now, Canada is set to approve the trade deal after January 27, when lawmakers return to work.

In Mexico, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador , Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard , ambassador Martha Barcenas , and other officials celebrated the ratification of the USMCA in the U.S.

Nevertheless, Jesús Seade was a step ahead and published a message on his Twitter account, where he revealed the trade deal had been approved before it was officially announced; he deleted the tweet minutes later.

Once the U.S. Senate voted and announced the results, Seade posted the message once again.

gm