Senate to advance Trump USMCA trade deal with help from liberal Democrats

The Senate Finance Committee is set to mark up President Trump’s United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade Tuesday morning, setting up a vote by the full Senate that will include support from trade-skeptical liberal Democrats likely this month.

It will be a rare bipartisan win for the president, who was impeached by the House Democrats just last month, something Republicans were keen to point out.

Democratic senators including Ohio’s Sherrod Brown, Oregon’s Ron Wyden, Minnesota’s Amy Klobuchar, Colorado’s Michael Bennet, and, most recently, Massachusetts’s Elizabeth Warren, have all said they’ll support the trade deal, which would replace the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement. Only two senators at opposite ends of the political spectrum have so far declared opposition: conservative Pennsylvania Republican Pat Toomey and socialist Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Senate Republicans on Monday sought to highlight the fact that they would be working on the trade deal amid the controversy over the Democratic effort to impeach Trump. “I’m not sure what @SpeakerPelosi is trying to accomplish by withholding the Articles of Impeachment, but while we’re waiting on her we’re going to use the time to work on passing #USMCA and confirm constitutionalist judges,” tweeted Iowa’s Joni Ernst.

Senate Majority Whip John Thune of South Dakota told reporters on Monday that if House Speaker Nancy Pelosi didn’t send over articles of impeachment this week, they’d use the opportunity to set up a full Senate vote on the trade deal quickly. “If there is a gap, our members are interested in getting it done. And the leader wants to get that done,” Thune said, referring to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

The White House spent the entirety of 2019 negotiating with House Democrats to create a compromise version of the trade deal that could pass the House. USMCA eventually passed the House on Dec. 19 after Pelosi said sufficient improvements had been incorporated, especially regarding labor rights. Senate Democrats have since echoed Pelosi’s claim that the lengthy negotiations improved the deal.

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