US Trade War: Senate Vote On USMCA Will Be Postponed Until After Trump Impeachment

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says the U.S. Senate will not consider a trade deal among the United States, Canada and Mexico until President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial in completed next year.

“That will have to come up, in all likelihood, after the [impeachment] trial is finished in the Senate,” McConnell said Tuesday.

The White House and Democrats were expecting a vote in December after agreeing on terms of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, which includes provisions for environmental and labor protections.

"Senator McConnell has no excuse not to bring up the [trade agreement]," a spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.

Pelosi’s spokesman also noted that in 2011, both the House and Senate voted to approve three trade agreements in a single day.

Congress will adjourn for the year on Dec. 20.

Lawmakers will now have more time to review the complex agreement. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer will brief senators on the deal in the next few weeks.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said he looks forward "to reviewing the agreement, hearing how it will impact Texas, and providing feedback."

The trade pact is expected to have bipartisan support despite some Republican misgivings.

John Thune, R-S.D., told CNN that the pact had some changes "that obviously were made to accommodate concerns that House Democrats had that are not going to be met with overwhelming favor from our members. But I think on the main, it still has all the components our members want to see."

However, by McConnell’s proclamation, senators will first consider two articles of impeachment from the House, which detail Trump’s alleged abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

McConnell said he thinks the Senate will reject the charges against Trump.

“I would be totally surprised if there were 67 senators [who want] to remove the president, and that remains my view,” McConnell said, referring to the supermajority vote that would be needed to convict Trump.

McConnell also criticized the trade pact.

“From my perspective, it’s not as good as I had hoped,” McConnell said. “We’ll have to look at the whole package. We’ll have to look at the details.”

In stark contrast, White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham, called the pact the "biggest and best trade agreement in the history of the world."

Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., is one of the few Republicans to vociferously oppose the trade deal, saying it is simply a modified version of the old North American Free Trade Deal, or NAFTA.

"There's no question it's moved way to the left," Toomey said on Tuesday. "This is basically NAFTA, with a few modernizations and some restrictions on trade and an expiration date. If people think that's a huge improvement, then I guess they'll be happy with it. For people who think free trade is important, they'll presumably see it as the step backwards that I see it as. It's not going to do anything for economic growth.”

Toomey added: "On balance, it's very likely that we will have moderately less growth, less trade, and less job creation than the underlying NAFTA. I don't want to overstate the magnitude of it — most of this is NAFTA. But I'm simply making the point that many of the changes are counterproductive."