The House today passed the new North American trade pact, delivering President Donald Trump a major legislative victory just a day after his impeachment in the lower chamber.
 
Passage of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, moves Trump significantly closer to fulfilling his campaign promise of updating NAFTA with Mexico and Canada. It’s also a win for Democrats, who wanted to demonstrate they could pass legislation that benefits American workers while they pursued impeachment.
 
The deal was passed with strong bipartisan support after House Democrats landed a deal with the Trump administration last week that addressed their concerns with the replacement pact for NAFTA. It is not expected to significantly increase trade in the region, but estimates are that it would raise U.S. GDP by almost $70 billion, or 0.35 percent, and create 176,000 jobs by its sixth year.
 
The new deal still must go before the Senate for a straight up-or-down vote. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has already said it will not be considered until after the Senate impeachment trial in January. But the USMCA is expected to pass with strong bipartisan support in the upper chamber.

 

IFCA would like to thank the members of the Illinois congressional delegation that voted yes on final passage of USMCA.