Senate passes US-Canada-Mexico trade deal, in major win for Trump

Vote gives boost to embattled president ahead of impeachment trial and November election

Mexico has approved revised agreement, which will replace Nafta, and Canada is expected to do so in coming months

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The Canadian, Mexican and US flags hang in the lobby during trade negotiations in Ottawa in September 2017. Photo: AFP

Published: 1:58am, 17 Jan 2020Updated: 3:49am, 17 Jan 2020

The US Senate overwhelmingly approved a new North American trade agreement Thursday that rewrites the rules of trade with Canada and Mexico and gives President Donald Trump a major policy win before senators turn their full attention to his impeachment trial.

The vote was 89-10.

The measure goes to Trump for his signature. It would replace the 25-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement, known as Nafta, which tore down most trade barriers and triggered a surge in trade.

But Trump and other critics blamed that pact for encouraging US companies to move their manufacturing plants south of the border to take advantage of low-wage Mexican labourers.

Then-Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, US President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the USMCA signing ceremony in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in November 2018. Photo: Reuters

Passage of the trade bill came one day after Trump signed a new trade agreement with China, easing trade tensions between the economic powers.

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