Canada will be last to ratify USMCA, as the U.S. Senate passes trade deal

With the U.S. Senate voting 89-10 in favour, the USMCA has received its final required congressional approval before hitting President Donald Trump’s desk. It is expected that President Trump will sign the agreement next week.

Now that the biggest hurdle of U.S. Congress has been cleared, all eyes are focused on Canada to ratify the trade deal.

Chuck Grassley, Republican senator from Iowa, made it clear, saying, “All eyes will be on Canada to get the job done quickly so we can all work together on implementation.”

The Trudeau government did not follow Mexico’s lead and ratify in early 2019, citing possible changes required by Congress. Those were hammered out last month.

Parliament returns on January 27, 2020, from its Christmas/winter break, and expectations are that a vote will happen quickly. Jeff English of ThinkShift says, “It will be difficult to imagine any delays in the Conservatives and Liberals holding up a vote.”

Many analysts have focused on the limited actual changes to the NAFTA deal, but one of the larger changes is market access for U.S. dairy and poultry, and the removal of the Class 7 dairy pricing system.

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