The Senate Finance Committee has recommended the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement come up for a vote in the Senate as a whole, voting 25-3 Jan. 7 to advance the deal. Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, told reporters that the USMCA implementing bill also has to get buy-in from the Budget, Environment and Commerce committees, though they don't have to hold mark-up hearings, as the Finance Committee did. He predicted that if the articles of impeachment aren't sent over to the Senate yet, “by next week, for sure,” there would be a floor vote, but if the articles arrive, he said, it could be the end of January before a vote.
The Congressional Research Service released a report Jan. 3 on issues and provisions surrounding the state-state dispute settlement mechanism in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, including explanations of the consultation, panel establishment and resolution process. The report also includes potential considerations for Congress, including whether it should use USMCA's dispute resolution system as a ”template” for future Trade Promotion Authority legislation.
Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., the strongest free trade advocate in the Senate, said he doesn't know if Republicans will return to their traditional position as pro-free trade. In response to a question from the audience at the American Enterprise Institute Dec. 19, he said it depends on whether President Donald Trump is re-elected in 2020.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said the committee will hold a mock markup of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on Jan. 7. “This markup will move us closer to ratifying USMCA in early 2020,” Grassley said Dec. 20. “Farmers, manufacturers and all American workers will soon be able to benefit from a stronger and modernized trade agreement with Canada and Mexico.”
The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement passed in the House of Representatives with a vote of 385-41, with all but two Republicans and 193 Democrats voting yes. This was the biggest vote for a free trade deal in the House since the Canada Free Trade agreement in 1988, and many of the top Democrats in the House say it will serve as a template for future trade deals. It was a far more resounding “yes” than the original NAFTA vote of 234-200, when just 102 Democrats voted yes.
The U.S. pork industry expects phase one of the U.S.-China trade deal to be a boon to pork exporters, although the industry has not been told exactly how much they will benefit, the National Pork Producers Council said. “The administration hasn't been sharing the details,” Nick Giordano, the NPPC’s vice president of global government affairs, said during a Dec. 18 call with reporters. “But our understanding is that it’s going to be very good for us.”
The House Ways and Means Committee, with near-unanimity, recommended the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement go to the floor. A vote on the replacement for NAFTA is expected on Dec. 19. For about three hours, Democrats and Republicans praised the rewrite of North America's free trade pact, though many Republicans complained that it took a year to get the opportunity to vote for it.
Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the senior Democrat on the Finance Committee, and Sen. Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat who voted against NAFTA, have endorsed the NAFTA rewrite, known as the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. The two had said they would oppose the USMCA unless it included a labor enforcement mechanism that carried consequences for Mexican imports from factories that weren't honoring workers' rights.
Although the Senate Finance Committee will still have a mock markup on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, it will happen after the implementing bill has been sent to Congress, so it will be more “mock” than in past deals. The reason the process of Congress weighing in on a trade deal is a mock markup is that under fast track, or Trade Promotion Authority, Congress cannot amend the deals. But typically, the administration sends up a draft implementing bill, and then does incorporate at least some of Congress's suggestions on language before sending the final implementing bill.
House Democrats and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative say that the new NAFTA can serve as a template for future trade deals, but experts question how that might come to pass, and a key Republican wants at least one Republican priority restored in future deals.