US Senate approves USMCA
The United States’ Senate has approved the USMCA, the United States-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement that has been in negotiation among the three countries for more than a year and which will replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which had been in effect since 1994.
The Senate approved the revised pact in a bipartisan vote by 89-10, with the final draft of the agreement having been approved by the House of Representatives in December.
The USMCA’s approval sends the document to President Trump for ratification, and hands Trump a victory on one of his 2016 campaign promises.
The agreement must still be approved by Canada’s parliament.
A statement by the White House press secretary called the measure “another trade win for American workers”, replacing “the job-killing, huge failure NAFTA.”
“USMCA, which the President successfully negotiated over a year ago, rebalances trade between the three countries and will lead to significant economic and job growth in the United States,” the statement said.
Among the modifications the USMCA ushers in compared with NAFTA are updated labour and environmental standards, which include enforcing a minimum wage for workers in the automotive sector, enforcing stricter environmental standards for Mexican trucks, and new rules on fishing to protect marine life. The USMCA also includes stronger protections for patents and trademarks in areas such as biotech, financial services and domain names, as well as new provisions governing the expansion of digital trade and investment in innovative products and services.
The dispute settlement mechanism that allows countries to seek remedies for breaking the rules, and which was part of the original NAFTA, remains in place.
