House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas, told reporters on Tuesday that he does not anticipate the renegotiated North American Free Trade Agreement will receive a vote for approval this Congress.
Some Senate Republicans pushed for a vote during the lame duck session, while Republicans still hold a majority in the House of Representatives, but Brady said consideration of the renamed regional trade agreement, now referred to as the U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement, or USMCA for short, would be “a more deliberate and open process.”
“It is common to have trade agreements signed in one year, and taken up in the following session,” said Brady, referring to the next Congress.
“That’s what happened with the original NAFTA, so there’s still more work to do there,” he continued, while saying that new rules for Congress to consider trade agreements would draw out the process further.
The Texas Republican added, “Members of Congress are starting to hear from stakeholders back home about the agreement. At the end of the day Congress has the final say as to when these agreements move forward.”
