[CTC] Mexico becomes first country to ratify NAFTA 2.0 trade deal via Senate vote

[Arthur Stamoulis]

ttps://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-mexico-usmca/mexico-becomes-first-country-to-ratify-usmca-trade-deal-via-senate-vote-idUSKCN1TK2U3
<https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-mexico-usmca/mexico-becomes-first-country-to-ratify-usmca-trade-deal-via-senate-vote-idUSKCN1TK2U3>


BUSINESS NEWS <https://www.reuters.com/news/archive/ousivMolt>

JUNE 19, 2019 / 4:00 PM / UPDATED 30 MINUTES AGO
Mexico becomes first country to ratify USMCA trade deal via Senate vote

·

·

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico on Wednesday became the first country to
ratify the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) agreed last year
by the three countries to replace the 25-year-old North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA).

By an overwhelming majority, Mexico’s Senate backed the trade deal
negotiated between 2017 and 2018 after U.S. President Donald Trump
threatened to withdraw from NAFTA if he could not get a better trade deal
for the United States.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had already said the deal
would be ratified this week in the Senate, where his leftist National
Regeneration Movement (MORENA) and its allies have a comfortable majority
in the 128-member chamber.

There has been little parliamentary opposition in Mexico to trying to
safeguard market access to United States, by far Mexico’s most important
export market, and the deal was backed by nearly all the opposition
lawmakers who voted.

The USMCA was ratified with 114 Senators voting in favor and four against.
There were three abstentions.

Three of the four votes against the deal came from MORENA senators, as did
one abstention. The other vote against the deal was from an independent
senator, while two members of the center-right National Action Party (PAN)
also abstained.

Seven senators were not present for the vote.

Reporting by Miguel Angel Lopez; Editing by Dave Graham and Tom Brown



Arthur Stamoulis
Citizens Trade Campaign
(202) 494-8826
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.citizenstrade.org/pipermail/ctcfield-citizenstrade.org/attachments/20190619/aaa673b4/attachment.html>